White Blood Cell and Serum Biochemistry of Rabbits on Varying Levels of Oyster Mushroom (Pleurotus Ostreatus) Extract under Two Housing Types

Abstract

A total of ninety-six, six weeks old rabbits were grouped into two housing types (steel and wooden hutches), sex (male and female) and four inclusion levels (0 , 5, 10 and 15 ml) of oyster mushroom extract per litre of water in a 2 × 2 × 4 factorial experimental layout. One rabbit each was selected from each replicate at end of the 10th week of the experiment for white blood cell and serum biochemistry analysis. Results showed that growing rabbits on 5 ml of mushroom (Pleurotus ostreatus) extract per litre of drinking water had the lowest (P < 0.05) neutrophil (31.00 %) and the highest (P < 0.05) lymphocyte (67.25 %) in the white blood cell. Male rabbits in steel hutch have a higher (P < 0.05) eosinophil (0.75 %) in the white blood cell than the female rabbits in steel hutch (0.00 %). Rabbits in steel hutch had a lower (P < 0.05) low density lipoproteins (13.89 mg/dl) in the serum than rabbits housed in wooden hutch (16.02 mg/dl). It was concluded that housing rabbits in wooden hutch and inclusion of oyster mushroom up to 15 ml as phytobiotic for rabbits would optimize their health status.

Keywords

• housing types
• steel hutch
• wooden hutch
• oyster mushroom extract
• white blood cell
• serum biochemistry
• rabbits
• phytobiotic.