Haematological and biochemical parameters of Kano brown bucks fed graded levels of potash treated neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf meal-based diets

The haematological and serum profile of Kano brown bucks fed neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf meal was investigated for 63 days. Twelve growing Kano Brown bucks were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments with three animals per treatments in a completely randomized block design. Treatment A was the control diet without neem leaf meal while treatments B, C and D had 10%, 20% and 30% potash-treated neem leaf inclusion levels respectively. Blood samples were collected at the end of the experiment for analysis of haematology and biochemical parameters. The mean value of packed cell volume, haemoglobin, red blood cell counts and white blood cell counts were significantly (p>0.05) different across all treatments. The mean and standard deviation were 29.00, 90.10; 10.06, 0.39; 9.50, 0.55; 10.5, 1.11; 30.20, 0.08; 10.41, 0.85 and 33.02, 0.45 for PCV, Hg, RBC, WBC, MCV, MCH and MCHC respectively. Mean corpuscular volume was significantly (p<0.05) higher for animals fed 10% inclusion of the tested material ranging from (25.50 - 36.00 fl). Eosinophils, monocytes and basophils were not significantly different across all treatments while, lymphocytes and neutrophils were statistically significant (p<0.05) across all treatments with mean values of 43.29% and 56.75% respectively. The serum sodium ranged from (145.00 - 150.00 mmol/L), potassium ranged from (4.975 - 5.150 mmol/L) across all treatments. The creatinine value ranged from (85.50 - 103.5 mmol/L) total protein, albumin and globulin showed significant (p<0.05) difference across all treatments. The standard deviation was 0.003, 0.01, 0.02 and 0.18 respectively. Aspartate Aminotransferase, Alanine Aminotransferase and Alkaline Phosphatase were significantly (p<0.05) different across all treatments. The study revealed that potash-treated neem leaf meal could be used as feed for small ruminants, without any deleterious effect on performance and blood profile. It is concluded that dietary inclusion of potash treated neem leaf meal at 10 and 20% improved haemoglobin, packed cell volume and white blood cell counts. Keywords: Kano brown buck, Neem leaf meal, haematology and feed supplemen