CARCASS AND HAEMATOLOGY PARAMETERS OF BROILER CHICKEN REARED ON SUN CURED SESAME SUPPLEMENTED SESAME DIET.

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the effects of inclusion of sun-cured sesame meal as supplement for soya bean meal on performance and haematological characteristics of broiler chicken. Sesame is one of the agricultural product that is readily available cheap and can be used to reduce cost of livestock feed. A total of 150day old broiler chicks of relatively the same was rand01nly allotted to five dietary treatment replicated three times with ten chicks per replicate. The experimental design was completely randomized design (CRD). Five diets were formulated to contain different levels of  sun-cured sesame meal at 0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40%. At the end of eight week two birds per replicate was slaughtered for carcass characteristics. Treatment on carcass characteristics (live weight, bled weight, eviscerated weight. dressing weight, drumstick, and breast) were not significant. However. variations in organs (liver and gizzard) were significant with birds on T2 (20%) having the highest liver weight of 63 compared to 42 observed birds reared on T1 (0%). The gizzard increased significantly for birds on treatment 4 (30%,) compared to 50 tor those on Tl (0%) blood was collected from two birds per replicate and analysed for haematological indices. The supplementation of broilers diet effected a significant (p<0.05) variations in the haematological parameters. Birds reared on T4 (40% supplementation) had the least significant value of 19.0% in the PVC concentration compared to its counterpart on Tl (0%) with mean value of 32.0%. The RBC value varied from 4.04mm x 10⁶ for birds on Tl to 3.36mm x recorded for birds on T4. Apparent variations in the values 2.17 — 3.17 observed with eosinophil and haemoglobins 6.02 — 7.68g/dl were not significant. In conclusion, sun-cured sesame meal could be added to broiler chicken ration at 40% without any adverse