EFFECT OF SUPPLEMENTING MORINGA (Moringa oliefera) AND LETTUCE (Luctuca sativa) LEAVES ON HAEMATOLOGY AND SERUM BIOCHEMISTRY OF MONGREL RABBIT

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the effect of supplementation of moringa and lettuce leaves on heamatology and serum biochemistry of mongrel rabbit which was carry out at the Rabbitry unit of the teaching and research farm in the department of Animal science, ADUSTECH Wudil, Kano State. The supplementary diets comprised of four treatments and replicated four times T1 with 0%, T2 with 5% lettuce, T3 5% Moringa and T4 the combination of 5% lettuce and 5% moringa respectively. The animals were allotted to the four dietary treatments in a Completely Randomized Design, which replicated four times. Experimentation period lasted for 6 weeks and experimental diet fed 3% of the experimental animals body weight. Blood sample with (EDTA) and without anticoagulant were collected from all treatments which was used to determine hematological and serum indices. The laboratory results were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) in a statistical analysis system (SAS, 2002) version 6th statistical software, difference between treatment means were separated at 5% level of probability using Duncan multiple range test (DMR). Results regarding hematological attributes revealed that, there were statistically significant (P<0.05) difference across all the treatments values recorded on RBC, except T2 (3.12) which shows no significant (P>0.05) difference. Similarly significant (P<0.05) differences were observed across all the treatment values recorded on WBC except T1 (75.0) which shows no significant (P<0.05) difference. Moreover significant (P>0.05) difference was observed across all the treatments values recorded on monocytes, except T2 (5.63). While serum chemistry revealed that, there were statistically significant (P>0.05) differences observed across all the treatments values recorded on chlorine (CL-) except T4 (103.00). Similarly significant (P<0.05) difference was observed across all the treatments values recorded on glucose fast except T4 (4.26). However significant (P<0.05) difference observed across 2 treatments T3 (0.54) and T4 (0.18) on HDL. It concluded that lettuce and moringa oliefera leaves supplementation to mongrel rabbit as 5% and 10% combination (lettuce and moringa oliefera) leaves had significantly affected blood metabolites, especially RBC and WBC and LFT enzymes of mongrel rabbits respectively.