Haematology and Serum Biochemistry of Grower Pigs Fed Varying Levels of Ipomoea asarifolia Leaf Meal

Abstract

Thirty-two large white x Hampshire weaner pigs aged 8-9 weeks with average weight of 18kg were used in a 56 day feeding trial to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion levels of Ipomoea asarifolia Leaf Meal (IALM) on the haematology and serum biochemistry of weaner pigs. The pigs were separated into four groups and further replicated 4 times in a completely randomized design and fed diets containing 0, 5, 10 and 15% levels of IALM which represented treatments 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively. The pigs were adequately housed, while feed and potable water were supplied ad libitum. Other standard management practices were adequately put in place. At the end of the 56 days, 4 pigs were randomly sampled from each treatment (1 per replicate) and blood collected through venepuncture on veins at backside of the ears. The samples were analyzed for haematology and serum biochemistry. All data were subjected to analysis of variance. Results show that most haemotological parameters were influenced by the varying levels of the treatment indicating significant differences (p<0.05) between treatments except for Hb and MCH. Also, white blood cell differentials significantly differed (p<0.05) between treatments. There were no deleterious effect on the haematology and serum biochemistry of growing pig.