Haematological and biochemical responses of weaner rabbits fed diets containing graded levels of poultry litter

A study was carried out with twenty-four (24) Chinchilla rabbits of mixed sexes (2–3 months old) using Completely Randomized Block Design to investigate the effect of feeding diet containing poultry litter on haematological and biochemical constituents in blood. Poultry litter was collected from the layers pen of the Teaching and Research Farm; Rivers State University of Science and Technology, Port Harcourt. The poultry litter was stock pilled and covered with thick black cellophane under a shade for 21 days.

The twenty four rabbits were randomly allotted to the four diets, containing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% poultry litter replacement of soya bean. The rabbits were maintained on these diets for 12 weeks. Blood samples were collected from the rabbits at the end of the feeding trial for haematological and biochemical analyses. Results obtained show that the concentration of haematological indices (Hb, RBC, WBC and PCV) did not differ significantly (P>0.05) between treatments. It was observed that means of biochemical components (SGOT, SGPT, ALP, Total Protein and Cholesterol) were not significantly (P>0.05) different between dietary treatments. The study demonstrated that feeding rabbits with poultry litter may not elicit negative response(s) in the haematology, serum protein metabolism and enzyme activities of the animals.