Effect of Albizia Lebbeck Seed Oil Dietary Supplementation on the Heamatological and Serum Biochemical Parameters of Weaner Rabbits

This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of Albizia lebbeck seed oil (ALO) dietary supplementation on some hematological and serum biochemical parameters of weaner rabbits. Fifty (50) weaned rabbits of mixed breed and sexes, aged between 6-7 weeks with an average initial body weight of 510 ± 0.31 were randomly divided into five treatment groups with five replicates, each of two rabbits in a completely randomized design (CRD). Treatment 1 was fed basal diet without ALO, Treatment 2, 3, 4 and 5 were fed basal diet supplemented with ALO at levels of 0.1 %, 0.2 %, 0.3 % and 0.4 % respectively and the experiment lasted for ten weeks. Results for haematology showed that all the parameters (PCV, Hb, RBC, MCH, MCV, MCHC, WBC and its differentials) were significantly (P<0.05) affected by the dietary supplementation of ALO also higher mortality was also recorded among animals in T1 (3) and none was recorded in the other groups. Total protein, glucose, urea, cholesterol and activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were significantly (P<0.05) different among the treatments. However, total bilirubin and creatinine were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced by ALO. Results obtained from this study showed that the ALO inclusion at 0.4 % had no deleterious effect on the blood profile of rabbits.