Performance and Health Status of Arbor Acres Broiler Chickens Raised with Routine Administration of Fluoroquinolones

Aim: The study was carried out to evaluate the effect of routine administration of fluoroquinolones on performance, haematology, and serum biochemistry indices of Arbor Acre broiler chickens.

Study Design: The experiment employed a completely randomized design; all data generated were subjected to analysis of variance, P=0.05.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was carried out at the Teaching and Research Farm, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, between February and March, 2014.

Methodology: One hundred and eighty unsexed one-day old Arbor Acres broiler chicks were used in a 48-day study. Broiler chicks were distributed into four experimental treatments viz; control, enrofloxacin, ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin. Birds were administered with 10 mg/kg body weight of the selected fluoroquinolones for 3 days on week 2, 4, and 6. On Day 39, 3 birds per treatment were randomly selected and blood collection was done through jugular puncture. Selected haematological and serum biochemistry parameters were analyzed to determine the health status of the birds. Growth Performance of the experimental birds were evaluated on day 48.

Results: Performance results of the experimental birds showed significant differences (P≤0.05) for daily weight gain, daily feed intake and feed conversion ratio. The group supplemented with ciprofloxacin had the best performance. Selected fluoroquinolones had no influence on haematological indices evaluated. Serum indices showed significant (P≤0.05) differences for Aspartate Amino Tranferase (AST) among the treatments. Control had the highest mean value for AST (85.32±5.12 I.U/L) compared to other treatments.

Conclusion: The results obtained in this study indicated that routine administration of fluoroquinolones had effect on some performance and health status indices of Abor Acres chickens when compared with the control.