Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of Phyllanthus amarus leaf meal (PALM) on haematology and serum biochemistry broiler chickens. One hundred and twenty (120) day old marshal broiler chickens were used for the experiment that lasted for 56 days. The birds were randomly allotted to four treatments of T₀ (control, no PALM), T₁ (2.5g/kg PALM), T₂ (5.0g/kg PALM), T₃ (7.5g/kg PALM) and T₄ (10g/kg PALM) in a complete randomized design (CRD). Each treatment was replicated thrice with 8 birds per replicate. The birds were fed with measured commercial Top^R feed whereas water was given ad-libitum. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were aseptically collected via venopuncture from a randomly selected bird per replicate to determine the haematology and serum biochemistry. The data were subjected to analysis of variance and the statistical difference in means was separated using Duncan’s Multiple Range Test. The haematology results showed no significant difference (p>0.05) across groups except for RBC count where T₄ was significantly different (p<0.05) from others and eosinophil count where T₀, T_1, and T₄ were similar but different (p<0.05) from T₂ and T₃. The serum biochemistry parameters equally showed no significant difference (p>0.05) except for the uric acid where T₄ was statistically different (p<0.05) from others whereas T₂ and T₃ also differed (p<0.05) from T₀ and T₁ and urea that had T₄ and T₃ (p>0.05) differed from T₂ and T₁ (p>0.05) and T₀. It can, therefore, be concluded that PALM enhances positive haematological and serum biochemical parameters. It is recommended that PALM even up to 5g/kg can be used in broiler chicken without deleterious effects on haematological and serum biochemical parameters.