Rafidain Journal of Science

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of aflatoxin at a concentration 2,5 mg/kg diet alone or with different levels of Ninivite 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5% on total, differential and absolute leukocyte counts in broiler chicks. The addition of aflatoxin (AF) in broilers diet at a concentration of 2.5 mg/kg did not significantly alter leukocyte counts when compared with the control group. The addition of Ninivite at all doses to the AF contaminated diet were resulted in a significant increase in the total circulating leukocytes when compared with the control group.
Differential leukocyte counts revealed a significant increase in the percentages of both monocytes and heterophils, and a reduction in lymphocytes when Ninivite was added at all doses to AF contaminated diet. The differential leucocyte counts of the remaining cells (Basophils and Eosinophils) show no significant changes when compared with AF and control group. The heterophils lymphocytes (H/L) ratio was significantly increased with each increase in the level of Ninivite addition to AF contaminated diet when compared with AF and control group .The picture of the absolute and differential leukocyte counts were identical except that, the lymphocytes were significantly reduced when Ninivite was added to AF contaminated diet at concentrations more than 1.5% when compared with AF and control group.