Haematological and Histological Evaluation of African Mistletoe (Viscum albium) Leaf Meal as Feed Additive for Broilers

摘要

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of African Mistletoe leaf meal (AMLM) as a feed additive for broiler chickens. 200 day-old chicks were randomly allotted into five treatments in a complete randomized design. Each group was further subdivided into five replicates of 8 birds per replicate. Five experimental diets were formulated and AMLM was incorporated into the diets at different concentrations (0% with 0.05% antibiotics, 2.5%, 5.0%, 7.5% and 0% without antibiotics (negative control). There were no significant differences observed for packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cell counts, monocytes, eosinophils, basophils, platelets while the values obtained for other MLM-supplemented diets for other haematological parameters were statistically similar to the values obtained for the control diets. The observations made from liver histology ranged from no visible lesion (T₁), diffused mild thinning hepatic cords, severe congestion of central vein and Hepatic sinusoids + Necrosis + foci inflammation of cell infiltrate, mild vascular congestion of central veins to severe diffused vascular degeneration of hepatocytes. Viscum albium leaf meal did not have any deleterious effects on most of the haematological parameters when compared with the control.