Pages: (25-38 )
Abstract
This study is designed to determine the organ weight and histological integrity of broiler chicken liver after a 10-week dietary supplementation of Cinnamon-zinc. A total of 240-day-old Abor acre broiler chicks, were randomly assigned to five dietary treatment groups of 48 birds each, having three replicates of 16 birds each. The experimental design are as follows: T1- <230C low temperature (use of coolant), T2- elevated environmental temperature (No herbal supplementation), T3- 800 mg of cinnamon powder per kg basal diet, T4- 800 mg of cinnamon powder + 40 mg of Zinc per kg basal diet and T5-1000 mg of cinnamon powder + 40 mg of zinc per kg basal diet using a completely randomized design. The experiment was carried out during the late dry season (February - early April) in Nigeria, marked with an average temperature of 310C, and relative humidity of 68%. The organs assessed for their weights include the liver, kidney, lungs, spleen, small intestine, bursa, and abdominal fat, in addition to the live weight. The representative portion of the liver lobes was collected and stored in 10% formalin just before the preparing tissue samples for microscopic examination through fixation, processing through dehydration/clearing, embedding in paraffin, sectioning with a microtome, staining, and mounting.
The result revealed that treatment 1 showed normal histomorphological presentation with a normal-sized halo-spaced central vein surrounded by densely distributed hepatocytes while in Treatment 2, the central vein was atrophied, and obvious dilatation of the sinusoidal space was recorded, mild dilation of the sinusoidal space is evident in Treatments 3 and 4 , while strong dilatation of the sinusoidal space is apparent in Treatment 5.
Based on the findings of this study, cinnamon and zinc supplementation appears to significantly impact the liver histology of broiler chickens. Cinnamon and zinc supplementation at 800 mg of cinnamon powder + 40 mg zinc per kg of basal diet had a mild effect on the liver. However, raising broilers under a temperature of < 22 0C had a better liver histological architecture.
Keywords: Broiler chicken, histology, liver, cinnamon, zinc, Heat stress,