Growth and Hematological changes of commercial birds fed on blood meal supplement with water

The experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of blood meal supplement on growth performance and hematological parameters changes in broiler chicks. The experiment was carried out with 40 selected homogenous sex and weight broiler chicks having 10 for each group. The lay out of the study was conducted with control group A, fed only with standard commercial broiler ration and other groups viz. B, C, and D were fed with standard commercial ration in addition to 2.5 %, 5.0 %, and 7.5% blood meal supplement with water respectively for 15 days (21 to 35 days of age). The activities of broiler chicks, growth performance, weight loss or gain and any kind of abnormalities were closely observed in every day and the body weight was recorded at 7 days interval. During feeding of blood meal all treated groups were found increased body weight at different level.The blood meal supplied to the broiler chicks increased the growth performance that was directly proportional to the rate of blood meal supplement with water, because the ration was fixed for every group. In hematological observations, TEC, Hb concentration and PCV were decreased but rapid decreasing occurs in group (B) that was statistically significant (P<0.05). In this experiment during feeding of blood meal no clinical symptoms were found markedly. But slight symptoms occur when fed 7.5 % blood meal.The data were analyzed by least significance difference (LSD) with a compute program SPSS-11.50 (Statistical packages for social sciences).


Introduction
High cost of feeds is one of the major problems of commercial poultry production in Bangladesh.Its cost usually ranged between 65-75 % of the total production cost (Haq andAkhtar, 2004 andBhuiyan, 1998).This problem has resulted to reduce the rate of expansion of the poultry industry and has added to the low level of animal protein consumption and ultimately malnutrition to its people.A prospective way of increasing the supply of poultry products at cheaper prices is by reducing the cost of production through the use of cheaper, locally available sources of animal protein such as blood meal in place of costly fish meal and imported soybean meal, meat and bone meal, protein concentrate etc. Blood meal is a dark chocolate-coloured powder with characteristics smell contains high percentage (above 80%) of crude protein (Sanger, 1981) and certain minerals particularly iron and copper.It is one of the richest sources of lysine, a rich source of arginine, methionine, cystine, leucine but is very poor in isoleucine and contain less glycine than either fish meal or bone meal (NRC, 1994).When we compare blood meal with vegetable protein supplements for poultry it is quite high in biological value.Generally, vegetable protein supplements are deficient in two of the essential amino acids which are lysine and methionine, but blood meal is rich in both of these amino acids (McDonald et al., 1992).Blood meal is obtained from slaughter house.In Bangladesh there are large numbers of animals that are being slaughtered every day and the blood from the slaughtered animals is drained off.The proper utilization of this product from the slaughter house has been limited due to lack of scientific knowledge regarding the processing.It is available every where in Bangladesh and we can easily collect, processed and store it.Blood meal is obtained when whole blood is cooked dried and ground to meal form.There is some evidence showing that 1 to 4% blood meal can be incorporated in the poultry diet with better growth performance (Petkov et al., 1980, Nuarautelli et al., 1987and Ikram et al., 1989).This is in contrast to the reports of others who have shown that the higher level of blood meal significantly improved the growth of chickens (Toor and Fahimullah, 1972, Hasan et al., 1974, Onwudike, 1981).Very little information is available of blood meal use in broiler diet.The present study was designed to assess the effects of using blood meal in the broiler diet on growth and changes of hematological values.

Materials and Methods
The experimental Farm (A private farm named, ARDF) was cleaned and washed using clean tap water and disinfected with strong disinfectant like losan R and Virkon-S R .Then the farm was kept empty for two days before placing the experimental birds.All necessary equipment was set properly to care the broiler chicks successfully.Proper hygienic and sanitary measures were also adopted during the experimental period.
A total of 40 Day old "Hubbard classic" broiler chicks were purchased from Pacific Hatchery, Valuka, Mymensingh.The chicks were brought to the ARDF for commercial rearing in a well ventilated paper cartons.The birds were reared throughout the entire period of study in proper atmosphere and hygienic condition providing sufficient brooder space and temperature, litter material and depth, floor space, feeder, drinker, lighting etc. according to the age of birds.
Fresh, clean and cool drinking water was made available.Standard commercial broiler ration (crumble and pelleted) formulated by Nourish Poultry Feed Ltd., Dhaka was used.The broiler chicks were fed with broiler starter for 1 to 14 days, broiler grower for 15-28 days and broiler finisher for 29-35 days of age.Birds were provided adlibitum feeds during the rearing period.
In order to prevent stress, shock, deficiencies and bacterial diseases some medicinal items were used with fresh and clean water as per scheduled followed by ARDF.To protect birds against viral diseases specially like New Castle disease (ND) and Infectious bursal disease (IBD)/ Gumboro Disease, all birds were also vaccinated as per scheduled followed by ARDF.
Processed Blood meal which contains 98% crude protein and 2% minerals was collected from the Miner feed Mills Kanhor Bazaar, Mymensingh.
When the broiler chicks were acquainted with the prevailing environment, prescribed feeding system and completed the scheduled vaccination program after 21 days old a total of 40 homogenous weight male selected birds with an average body weight of 1006 gms were divided into four equal groups (n =10) as A, B, C and D and caged with an area of 3.0 × 2.5 ft per group.Initial body weight of each bird was recorded.One, out of four experimental groups was considered as control (Group-A) fed only with commercial ration and other groups (Group-B, C & D) were fed with commercial ration in addition to blood meal supplement with water at the rate of 2.5%, 5.0% and 7.5% (0.25gm / litre, 0.50gm / litre and 0.75gm / litre of water) respectively for 15 days (21 st to 35 th days) .It is mention that 5.0% dose of blood meal with water is commercially normal dose for broiler which represents group C.
The body weight of each bird was measured with the help of a sensitive balance started from day 21 (start of experiment) and sequentially after 7 days interval up to the end of the experiment to assess the growth performance of birds of different treated groups.
Blood specimens were collected at the end of experiment for hematological studies. 2 ml blood was collected from wing vein of every bird by puncturing with disposable syringe and kept in a sterile test tube containing anticoagulant (4% sodium citrate solution) at a ratio of 1:10.The hematological studies were performed within a day of blood collection.Hematological parameters were total erythrocyte count (TEC), hemoglobin (Hb) concentration, packed cell volume (PCV) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR).Hematological parameters were studied in the BAU Physiology laboratory, Department of physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Science.
Completely Randomized Block Design (RBD) was used to analyze data.Data collected on body weight gain at different ages and hematological values were statistically analyzed by least significance difference (LSD) test using computer programme named Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS-11.50).

Results and Discussion
Body weight at different treatment groups at different ages are presented in Table 1.On an average, the body weight was highest (2025±29.81gm) in group C at 35 days of age.In group B and D the body weight were more or less similar i.e. 1985±37.12 and 1955±35.90gm respectively.But the control group contains 1770±32.66gm body weight which is significantly indicated less growth than the treated groups.
On the other hand, the body weight was lowest (1500±42.69gm) in group C at 28 days of age.In group B and D the body weight were more or less similar i.e. 1550±25.82 and 1530±32.66gm respectively.But in control group contains 1450±27.69gm body weight which is significantly indicated less growth than the treated groups.
The growth performance was directly proportional to the blood meal supply in the diet.At 28 and 35 days of age the body weight differed significantly (P<0.05) between control and treatment groups but did not differ among treatment groups.The body weight on 21 st day indicates initial body weight and obviously they are statistically insignificant.Squibb and Braham (1955) partially supported the results of this experiment.They found that blood meal to be a satisfactory source of lysine in all vegetable protein rations for baby chicks.The blood meal was most effective when supplied at 2 to 4 percent of the ration.A level of 8 percent resulted in either no supplementary effect or in a depression of growth.Slinger et al. (1950) also supported the findings of this experiment.They stated that combination of blood meal and keratin meal did not promote better growth than the blood meal alone.He also observed that 3 percent blood meal plus crystalline lysine produced better growth in poultry.In this study no lysine supplementation was made that may be reason for lack of growth promotion on dietary blood meal in the current observation.

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A positive relationship exists between the doses of blood meal and average body weight gain up to a certain level of doses.The increase body weight gain might be due to the increase level of blood meal supply, because blood meal possesses higher % of crude protein which leads to enhance body weight gain in broiler.
So, it might be assumed that after a certain dose of blood meal in broiler can decrease the capability of digestion and absorption and ultimately decrease the body weight gain.5.0% blood meal supplement with water increase the growth rate rapidly than other groups.So 5% blood meal supplement was found to be better growth performance in this experiment.This result agreed with the experiment of others.(Squibb andBraham 1955 andSlinger et al.1950 ;Sanger, 1981 ) The hematological values of broiler birds fed with blood meal at different doses were estimated.The results of various blood parameters are given in Table 2.The blood parameters i.e.Total erythrocyte count (TEC), Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), Packed cell volume (PCV), and Hemoglobin (Hb) concentration were more or less similar within all treatment groups.
The hematological values differed significantly (P<0.001) between control and treatment groups.In case of TEC, ESR and PCV the values differed significantly among the treatment groups.But in case of Hb the values did not differ significantly among the different treatment groups because the supplementation of bloodmeal may leads to increase the globin part of Hb but not Haem part of Hb due to lack of iron.On the observation of blood profile studies after treatment of different doses of blood meal there were decrease of TEC, Hb concentration and PCV and increase of ESR content in the birds.Ahmed et al. (1994), Donkoh et al. (1999), Odunsi et al. (1999) reported that hematological parameters are unchanged in protein treatment.Decrease TEC, Hb, PCV and increase ESR values in this experiment contradict with their findings.
There is also an evidence of little increase in total Erythrocyte count (TEC), Packed cell volume (PCV) and Hemoglobin (Hb) concentration which indicate the good condition of broiler health (Elangovane et al., 2001).They stated that the ESR, PCV, TEC was comparable for all dietary protein groups.Decrease TEC, Hb and PCV values may be due to higher growth rate of birds compare to control group.Increase bloodmeal supply leads to increase growth rate of birds rapidly due to protein binding but the values of TEC, PCV, ESR and Hb may not increase rapidly as rapid growth.
Actually no clinical symptoms were manifested in all groups.But slightly marked in group D that might be due to excess dose of blood meal.The symptoms were slight dullness, depressed, and semisolid mucus to watery dyspanea, shaking of head, frequent defecation with watery and blackish feces because excess dose of blood meal may reduce the rate of digestibility.
Finally, it may be concluded that the blood meal can be used as a supplemental source of animal protein with drinking water for broiler, but it is better not to use as the sole source rather than tolerant doses.It may, however be suggested that 5 % doses of blood meal with drinking water for broiler may be included for better utilization and performance.
mean values having uncommon superscripts in the same column differed significantly (P<0.05)TEC = Total erythrocyte count, HB = Hemoglobin, ESR = Erythrocyte sedimentation rate, PVC = Packed cell volume