Introduction

The physiological importance of erythrocyte in the domestic livestock has prompted studies that lead to the establishment of some indices with which the health and performance of the animal can be monitored. More importance among such health conditions in animals, which can be monitored using indices such as Mean Corpuscular Volume (MCV), Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin (MCH) and Mean Corpuscular Haemoglobin Concentration (MCHC). The hematological blood picture can give significant hints for the avian practitioner about anemia, dehydration, infection and Aspergillosis etc (Campbell, 1995). Due to the importance of hematological blood parameters in early detection of diseases (Theml et al.,2004: Tibbo et al., 2004) the present study was undertaken to evaluate haematological profile and erythrocyte indices in different species of poultry and this could be used for clinico pathological diagnosis and further allied studies. Hence the present study was undertaken to evaluate the haematological parameters of different species of poultry under identical managemental conditions. The domesticated avian species subjected for this study includes chicken (both exotic and native breeds), turkey, guinea fowl, Japanese quail, and geese.

Materials and Methods

In the present study a total of 162 blood samples were collected in EDTA vials for haematological studies from 18 adults birds (9 male birds and 9 female birds) in each different species of poultry viz. Guinea fowl, Turkey, Japanese quail, Kadakanath, Nicobari, Aseel, Rhode Island Red (RIR), White Leghorn (WLH) and Geese maintained at Institute of Poultry Production and Management, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences university, Chennai. Twenty weeks old chicken breeds (Kadakanath, Nicobari, Aseel, RIR and WLH), twenty eight weeks old guinea fowl, turkey and geese and 8 weeks old Japanese quail were used for this study. All these birds were reared in pens under uniform standard managemental conditions but the breeds were fed with their own feeding standard with respective age, recommended by NRC 1994. This studies were carried out during the southwest monsoon (June) with the maximum temp of 38° C and minimum of 19°C.  The Haemoglobin (Hb) content of blood was estimated by cyanomethemoglobin method and Packed Cell Volume (PCV) was determined by micro hematocrit method. Red Blood Cell (RBC) Count was estimated using the haemocytometer. Erythrocyte indices viz. MCV, MCH and MCHC were calculated from Total Red Blood Cell count (TRBC), Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and Haemoglobin Concentration (Hb) as per the standard formulae.  The statistical analysis of data was carried out as per Snedecor and Cochran (1994).

Results and Discussion

The overall mean values for various parameters studied are presented in table.

Hematological Profile

Mean values for hemoglobin (g/dl) were differed significantly (P<0.01) between different species of poultry. In chicken highest hemoglobin was recorded in Aseel (12.90), followed by Nicobari (12.50), Kadakanath (11.10) and least in WLH (8.80) and RIR (8.70). The value for Japanese quail, guinea fowl, geese and turkey were 12.13, 11.63, 10.30 and 10.03 respectively. Higher hemoglobin levels in Aseel, Japanese quail and guinea fowl is may be that they are more active than the domestic chicken (RIR and WLH), which were agreement with the findings of earlier reports (Oyewale, 1991 and Kundu et al. 1993). The mean values for PCV (%) were significantly (P<0.01) highest in Japanese quail (36.83), guinea fowl (33.16) followed by geese (32.00) and least in turkey (30.66). Where as in chicken the highest values were recorded in Aseel (30.16) followed by nicobari (28.33) least in WLH (26.16) and RIR (24.83). Highest PCV value may be due to the flight activity of Japanese quail and guinea fowl over RIR and WLH. The present value agrees well with the range (24-36%) reported by Sundaresan and Mani (1996) in chicken. The mean value for RBC (X10⁶/µl) were differed significantly (P<0.01) between different species of poultry. In chicken breeds highest values recorded in kadakanath (2.96), followed by nicobari (2.93) and Aseel (2.82) and least in WLH (2.03). The RBC values in Japanese quail, turkey, guinea fowl and geese were 2.78, 2.73, 2.38 and 2.82 respectively. Schmidt et al. 2009 observed similar RBC count in adult 32 weeks old bronze turkeys. RBC was significantly higher in chicken than Japanese quail and turkey which may be possibly due to species (Oyewale and Ogwuegbu, 1987) and age variation (Islam et al., 2004; Pavlak et al., 2005).

Erythrocyte Indices

Mean values for MCV (fL) were significantly (P<0.01) highest in Guinea fowl (142.04) and Japanese quail (132.76) followed by WLH (128.52) and Geese (113.94) and least in Nicobari (97.04) and Kadakanath (84.81). Similar findings were reported in the range of 90 to 140 in chickens (Jain 1993) and 196.06 in wet season and 234.24 in dry season in ducks (Olayemi and Arowolo 2009). Variation in the MCV may due to breed, hormonal and nutritional differences (Olayemi et al. 2009).

Table 1: Hematological profile and Erythrocyte indices (Mean±S.E) of different species of poultry

Means bearing different superscript in the Hematological profile and erythrocyte indices column differs significantly (P<0.01)

The mean values for MCH (pg) were significantly (P<0.01) highest in Guinea fowl (50.24),  Aseel (46.34), Japanese quail (44.02) and WLH (43.24) followed by Kadakanath (37.55) and Turkey (37.13) and least in RIR (34.63) and Geese (36.53). The present values agreed well with the range of highest MCH in dry season (74.29) and lowest in (57.51) in wet season reported by Olayemi and Arowolo (2009). The variation in MCH is also due to variation in genetic makeup, nutritional and production performance. MCH reflect the Hb content of Red Blood Cell. This measure may be used to diagnose the type of anemia. The mean value of MCHC (g/dl) were significantly (P<0.01) highest in kadakanath (45.58) followed by Nicobari (44.61) and RIR (35.26) and Guinea fowl (35.10) and least in Turkey (32.81) and Geese (32.13). The overall mean values for different species of poultry were 37.33. In dehydration especially in wet season the MCHC value was increased 29.41 to 31.75 due to heamoconcentration in Nigerian ducks (Olayemi and Arowolo 2009). These overall values were in agreement with the findings of Pampori and Saleem (2007), Mary priya and Gomathy (2008). However, narrow variations in the values recorded in the present study could be due to difference in diets of the birds (Sahn et al., 2002), genetic makeup of the flock and age of the birds (Gendi et al., 2000) and also time of sampling (Adenkola and Ayo 2009), environmental temperature (Olayemi and Ojo 2007) and climate (Midilli et al., 2004). MCHC reflect the Hb concentration of Red Blood Cell. This measure may be used to diagnose the type of anemia. It is concluded that significant difference in haematological profile and erythrocyte indices among various species of poultry, which could be considered as a references values and this may serve as a guide to assess the health status in the monitored birds.

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