Effect of Graded Levels of Sweet Potato Leaves on Haematological and Serum Biochemical Parameters of Rabbits

Abstract

Mohammed U, Gambo D, Adua M M and Mallam I

The study was conducted to evaluate the effect of graded levels of sweet potato (Ipomoea batata) leaves (SPL) and pelletized concentrate feed (PCF) on haematological and serum biochemical parameters of rabbits. Thirty-six weaner rabbits comprising of eighteen (18) bucks and does each were used for the experiment. The rabbits were randomly assigned to three dietary treatments in a Completely Randomized Design. Twelve (6 males and females each) rabbits were assigned to each treatment and replicated three times such that each replicate was allocated 4 (2 males and 2 females) rabbits. Rabbits in treatment 1 were fed 100 % sweet potato leaves concentrate while in treatment 2 was fed 50 % concentrate and 50 % sweet potato leaves and treatment 3 was 100 % concentrate. Haematological and serum biochemical parameters data collected were subjected to one-way analysis of variance of the SPSS statistical package. Feeding rabbits with graded level of sweet potato leaves had no significant (p>0.05) effect on all the haematological and serum biochemical parameters measured. Based on the findings of this study, sweet potato leaves can be fed to rabbits without any known negative effect on the haematological and serum biochemical parameters and are recommended for feeding rabbits in the study area.

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