HAEMATOLOGICAL INDICES OF BROILER CHICKENS ADMINISTERED WATER CONTAINING VARIOUS MEDICINAL PLANT LEAF METHANOL EXTRACT

Abstract

The discovery that the use of antibiotics in animal production is fueling the increasing problem of transmitting resistance bacteria from food animals to man has led to the search for an alternative to the use of antibiotics. To this end, the response of broiler chickens fed various medicinal plants methanol extract as a replacement for antibiotics was investigated. The plant extracts encompass four available leaves; Gercinia kola (Bitter Kola), Alcornea cordifolia (Christmas bush), Pterocarpus santalinoides (Red scandal wood) and Chromolera Odorata (Hagony or Siam weed). A total of 180 unsexed Ross strain broiler chickens were randomly assigned to these dietary treatments which had 30 birds each. The treatments were replicated thrice with 10 birds per replicate in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD). Feed and water were provided ad libitum throughout the experiment which lasted for 56 days. Haematological indices of broiler chickens were evaluated.Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in the mean values of all the hematological parameters measured across the treatment groups except Packed cell volume and White blood cell. However, the values obtained did not reveal any health problem. The findings of this study conclude that the medicinal plant methanol extracts have considerable potentials as component of broiler chicken diet. Alcornea cordifolia plant methanol extract can successfully be used to replace antibiotics for broiler production. Further research should be carried out on Alcornea Cordifolia and other medicinal plants to examine their potentials and inhibitory characteristics