ABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of planes of nutrition on body weight, haematology and immune responses in broiler chickens vaccinated with NDV I-2 and Lasota vaccines. Two hundred (200) day old broiler chicks of Anak 2000 strain were used for the study. They were randomly assigned into nine groups of 20 birds each. Three feed types (A, B, C) were compounded for the study. Proximate analyses of the feeds were carried out. The groupings are A1 (feed A + I-2 vaccine), A2 (feed A + lasota vaccine), A3 (feed A + no vaccine), B1 (feed B + I-2 vaccine), B2 (feed B + lasota vaccine), B3 (feed B + no vaccine), C1 (feed C + I-2 vaccine), C2 (feed C + lasota vaccine), C3 (feed C + no vaccine). Feeding and provision of water were adlibitum for the 9 week period of the study. Weight gain was determined on weekly basis . Packed cell volume (PCV), hemoglobin concentration (HbC), total leucocyte counts (TLC) and differential leucocytes counts (DLC) were carried out on weeks 1, 3, 6 and 9 of the experiment following standard procedures. Serum samples were collected from 4 birds each from the nine groups at weeks 1, 3, 6 and 9 for haemaglutination and haemaglutination inhibition tests. Ten birds each were randomly selected from the different groups and challenged with virulent Newcastle disease virus strain Kuru duck113 (Kudu113). The birds were monitored for clinical signs and those that died were necropsied. Data obtained were analysed using one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and variant means were separated by duncan multiple range test. Antibodies in broilers in different dietary groups were compared. All tests were performed at a 5% level of probability. Proximate analyses of the feeds showed that feeds A, B, C had 98.61%, 97.67% and 97.76% dry matter, 24.21% , 22.19% and 20.05% crude protein, 9.25% , 8.11% and 7.25% ash, 6.9% , 6.6% and 5.2% crude fiber, 3.95% , 5.46% and 6.2% oil, 58.77% , 56.73% and 55.73% energy and 6.4% , 5.9% and 5.4% moisture for the starter feed respectively while the finisher feeds A, B, C had 97.78% , 97.54% and 97.47 % dry matter, 22.00% , 20.04% and 19.61% crude protein, 10.25% , 9.32% and xii 8.30% ash, 5.4% , 5.0% and 4.2% crude fiber, 3.6% , 5.45% and 6.31% oil, 58.13% ,57.89% and 56.03% energy and 5.3% , 4.2% and 3.9% moisture respectively. The mean weight gain of groups fed feed A were significantly higher (p