Haematology and Serum Indices of Weaner Pigs Fed Raw Pride of Barbados (Caesalpina pulcherrima) Seed Meal

Abstract

Sixteen (16) weaner pigs with an average weight of 3-6kg were used in an 8th weeks feeding trial to evaluate the haematological and serological response of the pigs to four levels of raw pride of barbados based diets. The animals were alloted into four treatments groups comprising four animals per group and two animals per replicate. Four isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated. Diet 1 which was the control diet, contained 0% of raw pride of barbados seed meal while diets 2, 3 and 4 contained 5%, 10% and 15% raw pride of barbados seed meal respectively. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected from two animals per treatment for haematological and serological study. The results obtained for the haematological indices revealed that the inclusion of raw pride of barbados seed meal had significant effect (P<0.05) on the packed cell volume (22.50-30.50%), haemoglobin (7.50-10.00g%),red blood cell (3.82-4.82x10),white blood cell (3825.00-7000.00x10),mean corpuscular volume (57.41-63.34fl), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (18.89-30.77pg), eosinophil (1.50-2.50%), lymphocyte (39.00-41.50%) and monocyte (1.00-3.00%) while mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (32.79-33.33g/dl) and neutrophil (55.50-56.50%) were .not significant (P>0.05).For serum, significant difference(P<0.05) were obtained in the values recorded for total protein(7.35-8.90), albumin(3.65-4.55), globulin(3.70- 4.35) and creatinine (38.50-77.75) respectively. The results of this study suggest that weaner pigs can be fed with raw pride of Barbados up to 5% inclusion level in their diets without any detrimental effects on the haematological and serum indices

Keywords: Pride of barbados seed, haematology, serum, weaner pigs