Performance and Egg Quality Characteristics of Egg-Type Chickens as Influenced by Fluted Pumpkin (Telfaria Occidentalis) Leaf Extract

Abstract

Atotal of 120 sixteen week old point of lay birds of the Isa Brown strain were used for
the experiment to determine the effect of fluted pumpkin (Telfaria occidentalis) leaf
extract (FPLE) administered orally on Laying performance, egg quality
characteristics; blood chemistry haematology and serum chemistry for a 12 week
period. The birds were randomly assigned to five treatment groups: control group
with no FPLE; 30ml FPLE/litre of drinking water; 60ml FPLE; 90ml FPLE and
120ml/litre FPLE respectively at 3 day intervals. Feed was given ad libitum. Eggs
were collected at 2 week interval to determine external and internal egg qualities.
Blood sampling was carried out at the twelfth week of experiment. The results show
that FPLE significantly (P<0.05) increased hen day with birds in group with 120ml
FPLE/litre water having higher values than other groups. External egg qualities
were not influenced by FPLE inclusion. Internal egg qualities like shell weight and
haugh unit were significantly increased by FPLE with birds in group with 120ml/litre
FPLE having the highest significant values than birds in control and other groups.
Haematological results show that for packed cell volume (PCV), Haemoglobin were
not similar for all the groups in this experiment. However results for Red blood cell
count (RBC) and White blood cell count (WBC) and differential were increased with
FPLE intake with birds administered 120ml/litre of FPLE having the highest values
for RBC and WBC. Serum chemistry results show similarities for serum total protein,
Albumin, Globulin, Total Cholesterol and Serum Alanine Transaminase (SALT).
FPLE has been proven to be a haematinic in rats and broiler chickens; this present
result further strengthens this assertion though the results for blood analysis are
contrary to that obtained by the authors for meat type chickens. It can therefore be
concluded that up to 120ml FPLE/litre of drinking water can be tolerated by egg type
chickens from point of lay phase to early laying phase.