Haematological parameters and serum biochemistry of Japanese quail chicks (Coturnixcoturnix japonica) fed raw and processed pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) seed meal based diets

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with 720 one - week old Japanese quail chicks to evaluate the effect of feeding raw and processed pigeon pea  (Cajanus cajan) seed meal based diets on the haematology and serum biochemistry of the Japanese quails in a completely randomized design. Birds were allocated to eight treatment groups with three replicates each containing 30 birds per replicate. The control diet (TI) had no pigeon pea seed meal, T2 was raw pigeon pea seed while other diets contained 30% of pigeon pea seed meal processed by soaking (for 24, 48 and 72 hours) (T3 – T5), fermentation for 72 hours(T5), boiling for 60 minutes(T6) and roasting for 30 minutes(T7). Blood samples were collected from  the birds through the wing web vein at the 6th week of the feeding trial. The haematological parameters investigated were packed cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb), red blood cells (RBC), white blood cells count (WBC), lymphocytes, neutrophils, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular  haemoglobin (MCH) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) while serum biochemical components were creatinine, cholesterol, albumin, urea and total protein concentrations. The results obtained in this study showed that all the haematological parameters and serum biochemistry of birds were significantly (P<0.05) influenced by dietary treatments except albumin concentration (g/dL). The packed cell volume, haemoglobin concentration, red blood cells and total protein values were within the range of 41.00 – 52.17 %, 13.63 –17.35g/dl, 6.80 – 8.83 (x 106/mm³) and 5.62 – 7.70 g/dl respectively. The results suggest that raw and processed pigeon pea seed meal (PPSM) possess good dietary protein quality for optimal growth and had no adverse effect on haematological and biochemical profiles of quail chicks at 30 % dietary level of inclusion.