Immune Response of Ross 308 Broiler Chicken (Gallus gallus domesticus) Fed with Brown Seaweed (Laminaria spp.)

The study documented the immune response of Ross 308 broiler chickens fed 2% brown seaweed (Laminaria spp.) as an alternative to antibiotic growth promoters during early post-hatch and grower-finisher stages. A completely randomized design with a 3 (post-hatch) x 2 (grower-finisher) diet in factorial arrangement was employed. A total of 792 viable embryos were utilized for the post-hatch trial, which lasted for 24 hours in the hatcher; the diet included PH1 (control/ no feed and water), PH2 (standard starter and water), and PH3 (standard starter with 2%BS and water), each with three replicates. Grower-finisher feeding used 576 chicks from hatcher and randomized in 2 dietary treatments mainly GF1 (standard diet) and GF2 (standard diet with 2%BS) that spanned for 35 days under controlled room temperature. Post-hatch and grower-finisher feeding of 2%BS did not significantly (p>0.05) affect the leukocyte cell count and H/L ratio of birds. The post-hatch H/L ratio of birds fed with PH3 (0.4330) was the lowest. However, birds fed with PH3 were observed to have the highest basophil cell count (1.44%). The result showed that grower-finisher feeding of 2%BS indicated a lower H/L ratio (0.4184) in contrast with the control. GF2 feeding elevated the basophil count (1.50%) and significantly (p=0.0286) increased the population of monocytes. The findings suggest that 2% brown seaweed improved immune response of birds.