ABSTRACT

This experiment which lasted for 35 days was conducted to evaluate the effect of different sources of calcium on the haematology and serum chemistry of turkey poults raised to eight weeks of age. A total of 72 local turkey poults used in this study were randomly assigned to six experiment groups, three replicates of 4 birds each, giving 12 poults per treatment diet in the completely randomized design experiment. Six treatment diets were formulated in which T1 contains bone meal, T2 oyster shell, T3 Di-calcium-phosphate, T4 bone meal/oyster shell, T5 oyster shell/di-calcium-phosphate and T6 bone meal/di-calcium-phosphate, all at 3% inclusion level. Feed and water were offered ad-libitum. Significant differences (p<0.05) were observed in the final weight and daily weight gain ofthe turkeys, in which T4 had the most significant values of (970 g) for final weight and (21.43 g) for daily weight gain, while T1 had the least significant values of final weight (790 g) and daily weight gain (17.43 g). Significant differences (p><0.05) were observed in packed cell volume (PCV) and red blood cell (RBC),as Treatment 2 recorded the most significant (p><0.05) values in PCV and RBC, while T1 performed least in both. In the serum chemistry, significant differences (p><0.05) were observed in blood glucose, urea, total protein, albumin and globulin levels, whereas, no significant difference (p>0.05) was observed in the creatinine level. This result has shown that the source of dietary calcium did not affect blood creatinine in turkey poults. The total protein, albumin and globulin ofturkeys fed diets 2, 3 and 4 were not significantly different from one another but were higher than others. The glucose ofdiet 6 (282.00) was higher than others whereas urea of T1 was higher than others. This experiment shows that combine form of calcium sourcessignificantly increased the body weights of young turkeys than single source, therefore, I recommend T4 (bone meal/ oyster shell) the best.