The Effect of Dietary Inclusion of Sesame indicum Leaves on Haematology and Serum Parameters of Broiler Chickens

Introduction: Various types of feed additives have been evaluated under commercial conditions and in experimental trials with the aim to achieve improvements on growth performance and the best economic return. Herbs, including Sesame indicum leaves, spices and various plant extracts/essential oils can be used as alternatives to replace antibiotic growth promoters as they are rich in phytochemicals (active compounds) that can be used to stimulate growth and health of the animals. The uses of all these herbs should be studied in relation to the blood and serum indices of the animals in order to determine their harmful level of consuming them by the animals. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine the effect of different dietary inclusion levels of Sesame indicum leaves on haematology and serum parameters of broiler chickens at both starter and finisher phases. Methods: A total of one hundred and fifty 1-day old, unsexed (Marshal) broiler chicks were randomly divided into five experimental groups at rate of 30 birds per group. Each group was further subdivided into three replicates at the rate of ten chicks per replicate in a Complete Randomized Design. A maize-soybean basal diet served as control while the Sesame indicum leaves was added to the basal diets at level (0g, 10g, 20g, 30g and 40g/kg) resulting in five formulae, respectively. At the end of the 4th and 8th weeks respectively, six birds were randomly selected from each of the replicate and blood samples were collected from the jugular vein of birds for haematology and serum. Results: The results indicated that all the haematology and serum parameters were significantly (p < 0.05) affected by the different inclusion levels of S. indicum leaves but the value obtained were within the recommended range while birds fed with the diet containing 40g/kg of S. indicum leaves had the highest values. Conclusion: Inclusion of S. indicum leaves in the diets appear not to have detrimental effect on the haematology and serum parameters of the experimental birds. The study recommended that 40g/kg inclusion level be adopted as it improved growth performance and general well-being of broiler chickens.