Vet World Vol.13 October-2020 Article-35
Research Article
Veterinary World, 13(10): 2294-2300
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.2294-2300
Evaluation of the hematological and clinical biochemical markers of stress in broiler chickens
2. Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
3. Department of Animal Health and Production, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria.
Background and Aim: Stress significantly affects health and productivity of animals. There is need for affordable and easy-to-assay markers of physiological stress in broilers. This study evaluated hematological and serum biochemical markers of physiologic stress in broiler chickens.
Materials and Methods: Thirty day-old broiler chickens were assigned to three groups of ten broilers each during the 56-day study. Group 1 broilers served as the control and were not exposed to any stressors; Group 2 broilers were stocked at the stress density of 50 kg BW m–2 from day 49 to 56 while Group 3 broilers had their feed withdrawn 36 h before blood collection on day 56. Blood samples were collected on day 49 (pre-stress sample) and day 56 (post-stress sample) from all the birds and subjected to hematological and serum biochemical analysis.
Results: The parameters did not vary significantly (p>0.05) pre-stress. Post-stress, there were significant variations in the heterophil, lymphocyte, and eosinophil counts and in the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio across the three groups. The concentrations of the plasma fibrinogen and serum albumins, sodium, and sodium to potassium ratio of the broilers varied significantly across the groups.
Conclusion: Heterophil, eosinophil, and lymphocyte counts, the heterophil to lymphocyte ratio, plasma fibrinogen, serum albumin, sodium, and sodium to potassium ratio are significant markers of physiological stress in broilers. Keywords: broiler chickens, hematology, physiological stress, serum biochemistry.
Keywords: broiler chickens, hematology, physiological stress, serum biochemistry.
How to cite this article: Nwaigwe CU, Ihedioha JI, Shoyinka SV, Nwaigwe CO (2020) Evaluation of the hematological and clinical biochemical markers of stress in broiler chickens, Veterinary World, 13(10): 2294-2300.
Received: 15-06-2020 Accepted: 15-09-2020 Published online: 31-10-2020
Corresponding author: Chioma U. Nwaigwe E-mail: uchenna.nwaigwe@unn.edu.ng
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.2294-2300
Copyright: Nwaigwe, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.