Effect of Dietary Palm Kernel Meal for Maize on the Haematological and Serum Chemistry of Broiler Turkey

Abstract

A twenty four-week study was conducted to determine the effect of replacing maize with palm kernel meal on the haematology and serum chemistry of broiler turkeys. Six dietary treatments were formulated with palm kernel meal replacing maize at 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 percent and were used to feed 180 turkey poults. The study adopted completely randomized design with the six dietary treatments replicated trice; The turkey poults were randomly allotted to three dietary treatments having 30 poults per treatment and 10 per replicate. Two separate samples of blood were collected from one bird in each replicate for haematology and serum chemistry analysis. With the exception of red blood cells and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration significant differences existed in the values of all the other haematological parameters. The haemoglobin of turkeys fed diets 1, 3 and 4 (14.00, 14.20 and 13.80g/dl were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of diets 5 (11.00g/dl) and 6 (12.40g/dl). The white blood corpuscles of diets 1, 2, 3 and 4 were not significantly different (P>0.05) from one another but that of diet 1 (9.60x10³/m³) and 4 (9.00x10³/m³) were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of diets 5 (8.20x10³/m³). The packed cell volume (PCV) of turkeys fed diets 1, 3 and 4 (42.0, 43.0, and 41.0%) were not significantly different but were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of diets 2, 5, and 6 (39.0, 33.0, 37.0%). In both MCH and MCV values, turkeys fed diets 2 were significantly greater ((P<0.05) than others whereas that of diet 4 was the least. Significant differences existed in all the values of blood chemistry examined except in glyceride and SGOT. The total protein of turkeys fed diets 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were not significantly different (P>0.05). The globulin of turkeys fed diets 2 and 3 were significantly higher (P<0.05) than others whereas the albumin of turkeys fed diets 2 to 6 were significantly greater (P<0.05) than that of diet 1. The glucose levels of turkeys fed diets 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 were significantly higher (P<0.05) than that of diet 5. The urea (0.54mg/dl), creatinine (1.48mg/dl) and cholesterol (122.0mg/dl) of turkeys fed diets 3 were significantly the least when compared to others. The SGPT of turkeys fed diet 2 (48.001u/l) was not significantly different from others but was higher (P<0.05) than that of diets 1 (42.001u/l). Considering the high values of Hb, WBC, PVC and the low urea and creatinine values of diet 3, it is recommended that PKM can replace maize at 60 percent for good blood status of turkeys.