Haematology and Serum Biochemical Constituents of Finisher Broiler Chickens Fed Diets Containing Water Soaked Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis) Peel Meal at Varying Durations

Abstract

A four week feeding trial was conducted using 180 5-week old Arbor acre broiler chickens to determine the effect of feeding various duration of water soaked sweet orange peels on haematology and serum biochemical indices with a view to determining the potential of soaked sweet orange peels as an alternative to maize. Six broiler finisher diets were formulated and fed to the chickens in groups of 30 birds per diet, subdivided into 3 replicates of 10 chickens each in a completely randomized design. Diet 1 (control) was maize-based, diets 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, sweet orange peels replaced maize at various duration of water soaked 0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 hours respectively, and incorporated at 30% inclusion. White blood cell, red blood cell and mean corpuscular volume was depressed (p<0.05) by various duration of water soaked sweet orange peels, packed cell volume did not indicate anaemic tendency among treatment and white blood cell count did not indicate infection due to treatments. Serum protein was adequate and liver and kidney function were not compromised. Health status and nutrient absorption of birds were not compromised by replacing maize with various duration of water soaked sweet orange peels in broiler chickens.

Blood Profile and Physiological Response of Broiler Chickens to Sweet Orange Peel Supplemented Water in a Hot Humid Environment

“…The slight reduction in RBC in 6 g/L group by 2.1 % implies that inclusion of SOPP at 2 − 4 g/L is sufficient to boost the red blood cell counts, while higher dose tends to gradually reduce it. This study agrees with the result of Amaga et al (2019), who reported significant influence of maize replacement with soaked sweet citrus peel on RBC of broilers but not on haemoglobin concentration, packed cell volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration at 9 weeks. Similarly, Seidavi et al (2015) in their report stated, that inclusion of orange peel extract into broiler drinking water at 1000 − 1250 mg/L for 42 days increased the volume of red blood cells and thereby recommended orange peel as a cheap supplement to improve blood constituents.…”

Peformance of Broiler Chickens Fed Differntly Processed Red Kidney Beans Seed Meal (Phaseoulus Vulgaris) as Poultry Feed Resource

“…These values obtained were higher than those for groundnut cake and soya beans meal (Olomu, 1995;Serres 1999) and Balloon (1980) reported a deficiency in methionine and lysine. Damang, et al (2017) reported a higher feed intake of birds fed boiled, toasted and fermented kidney bean diets were accompanied by better utilization for growth as these birds had significantly (P<0.01) better feed-to-gain ratio than the chicks on all other treatments. Other processing methods need to be explored in addition to heat treatment in order to reduce the anti-nutritional factors to tolerable levels in diets of broiler Chickens.…”