HAEMATOLOGICAL AND SERUM BIOCHEMICAL INDICES OF BROILER CHICKS FED DIFFERENT INCLUSION LEVELS OF GINGER (Zingiber officinale) AND GARLIC (Allium sativum) OIL MIXTURE

The objective of the present study was to determine the effect of dietary inclusion of ginger (Zingiber officinale) and garlic (Allium sativum) oil mixture (GGOM) on some haematological and serum biochemical indices of broiler chicken. A total of one-day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308) of mixed sex were randomly divided into five treatments with three replicates consisting of 10 birds each in a completely randomized design. Birds in treatment 1 (T1) were fed basal diet with 0 % GGOM while T2, T3, T4 and T5 were given GGOM at 0.1 %, 0.2 %, 0.3 %, and 0.4 % respectively. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks; food and water were provided ad libitum and all other management were strictly observed. Data collected were used to evaluate some haematological and serum biochemical indices of animals. Haematological parameters cover pack cell volume (PCV), haemoglobin (Hb), red blood cell (RBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC), white blood cell (WBC) and its differentials while serum analysis includes total protein (Tp), globulin, albumin, aspartate serum aminotransferase (AST), alanine amino transferase (ALT) and alanine phosphatase (ALP). All the haematological parameters were significantly (P ˂0.05) different among the treatment. Similarly, serum biochemical parameters were significantly (P ˂0.05) affected by GGOM. Increasing the level of GGOM from 0.1 % to 0.4 % tended to reduce ALP, AST, and ALT values. It was concluded that feeding birds at 0.4 % did not cause any negative effect on the health of the animals; the data revealed that all values were within the physiological reference range for broiler chicks.