ABSTRACT

The main objective of this research work is to determine the effect of floor and cage system of intensive management on the hematological values of cinnamon brown Japanese quail and to study the hematological values of cinnamon brown Japanese quail as an indicator for animal breeding programme. This study was carried out at the teaching and Research Farm of the College of Animal Science and Production and the Theriogenology laboratory of the College of Veterinary Medicine Micheal Okpara University of Agriculture. A total of 120 cinnamon brown Japanese quail (cortunix cortunix japonicra) was used and they birds were divided into two treatment groups, treatment one was kept on cages and treatment two was kept on the floor, and they birds were further divided into three replicates respectively. Data collected was analyzed using student T test while significant means were separated by Duncan multiple range test (200 I). The correlation of the hematological values was determined using Pearson correlation and all results were analyzed using the SPSS-20.0 software Values of p< 0.05 were considered significant. Parameters to be measured were. red blood cell. white blood cell, pack cell volume, haemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration. In the 2 nd and 4° week, all the parameters showed no significant (p>0.05) difference but from the 3° week, there was a significant (p<0.05) difference in the cage and deep litter system of RBC; 6.02 ± 0.57and 5.03 ± 0.10and in the 12° week, it was 5.00 ± 0.20° and 5.50 ± 0.20respectively. Also there was a significant (p><0.05) difference in the cage and deep litter system of WBC in the 3° week; 302.67 ± 7.02° and 335.67 ± 9.07and in the 12 week, it was 433.33 ± 28.94° and 779.67 ± 19.14 respectively. Also there was a significant (p><0.05) difference in cage and deep litter for PCV; 38.00 ± 1.0 and 41.33 ± 1.53 respectively. Moreso, in the correlation, no significant (p>0.05) relationship existed in the 4", 6" and 8 week under the deep litter system of management, but in the 10 week, a significant (p<0.05) relationship of 0. 999x occurred between PCV and RBC, also another positive significance (p><0.05) relationship of 0.999existed in the 12 week between MCHC and MCH and furthermore, under the cage system, there was no significant (p>0.05) in the 4 th week, but in the 6" week, a positive significant.