PAPER TITLE :HAEMATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF BROILER CHICKEN SUPPLEMENTED WITH HUMIC ACID IN THE DRI

APPLIED TROPICAL AGRICULTURE | VOLUME 21 NUMBER 2 2016

Paper Details

  • Author(s) : Lala, A.O.1*; Okwelum, N.1; Irekhore, O.T.2; Ogunlade, B.A.3; Adigun, A.A.3; Elegbede, L.A.3 and Oye
  • Abstract:

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of supplementing humic acid in the drinking water on some haematological and biochemical parameters of broiler chickens. One hundred and twenty (120), day-old Arbor Acre broiler chicks were randomly divided into three treatments in a completely randomized design. Each treatment of forty birds was replicated 4 times with 10 chicks per replicate and the experiment lasted for 56 days. Treatment I served as the control without humic acid in the drinking water while, treatment II was supplemented with 1 mL/L humic acid and treatment III was supplemented with 2 mL/L of humic acid. Results obtained showed that supplementation with humic acids had no significant effect (P > 0.05) on haematological indices of the broiler chickens. Significant (P<0.05) reduction in serum level of uric acid was achieved as the level of supplementation of humic acid increased while, serum phosphorus and calcium concentrations were significantly (P<0.05) increased with humic acid. Liver function enzymes were not significantly (P>0.05) affected because the activity of serum alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase were similar among all treatments. The results indicated that humic acid supplementation had a beneficial effect on mineral absorption and detoxification as revealed through uric acid concentration of broiler chickens.