Effects of Newcastle Disease Virus on Different Haematological Parameters in Broilers

| Newcastle disease (ND) is a severe life threatening viral infection of poultry birds in Pakistan. Current study was performed to evaluate effects of Newcastle disease virus on haematological changes in broiler chicken. Eighty (80) blood samples were collected from twenty (20) different farms of District Abbottabad clinically suspected for Newcastle disease infection & eighty (80) samples were collected from the healthy (ND free Broiler Flock) raised at Veterinary Research and Disease Investigation Centre, Abbottabad. The data revealed that there is a sharp decline in values for total erythrocyte count, haemoglobin concentration, HCT, MCH & MCV for ND affected birds viz; (1.63±0.07,8.7±0.26 & 21.79b±1.05, 53.3a±7.3& 1.33.68a±29 respectively) was significant (p-value<0.05) as compared to healthy broiler birds viz; (2.66a±0.08,10.1a±0.31& 28a±0.51, 37.9b±1.6 & 105.2b±2.1 respectively). Values for MCHC (36.1a±1.4 of healthy & 39.9a±29 for ND affected broiler birds) were not significant. Whereas for leukogram of group A, TLC, Heterophilslymphocytes, monocytes & eosinophils for ND infected birds viz; (20a±1.2, 18b±0.04, 74a±0. 14,5b±0.16 & 2.8b±0.04 was significant as compared to healthy broilers viz; (17.2b±0.9, 26a±0.03, 63b±0.15, 7a±0.14 & 3a±0.03 respectively). Basophils of ND infected & healthy broilers viz; 0.2a±0.02 & 0.1b±0.02 respectively were not found significant as p>0.05. It was also observed that ND virus has significantly affected haematology parameters in broiler birds.


study area
The study was carried out at Veterinary Research and Disease Investigation Center Abbottabad.Twenty (20) broiler flocks clinically affected with ND reared in different areas of the District were selected for sampling.Torecord normal hematologic values,a broiler flock of eighty (80) birds was reared at research centre.

saMple ColleCtioN
1.5 ml of blood from each broiler bird (infected & healthy) was collected in sterile, labelled anticoagulant (EDTA) added vacutainers.These tubes were place in ice box and shifted to haematology laboratory of Veterinary Research and Disease Investigation Centre, Abbottabad for hematology studies.Blood Samples were divided into two groups i.e., Group A for normal broilers and Group B for ND infected broilers.

statistiCal aNalysis
The data thus obtained was compiled in Microsoft excel sheet and analysed through statistical analytical software (Statistics version 8.1).General analyses of variance test was used for haematological differences and means were compared by LSD at p˂0.05 level of significance (Shah et al., 2017).

rESultS And dIScuSSIon
A total of eighty (160) blood samples were analysed.Eighty samples collected from normal birds and Eighty from birds infected with ND.The samples were processed for Hb, TEC, MCH, MCHC, MCV, TLC and DLC values.The detailed values for haematological parameters of ND infected and normal broiler birds are presented in Table 1.As presented in the above table it is revealed that total erythrocyte count (TEC) of the normal health chicken were greater than that of ND affected Birds.This change was found significant (p-value<0.05).The results of this study are parallel to the study of Ripon et al. (2013) which also revealed the same results for normal birds while that of ND affected birds is comparable to studies of Chekwube et al. (2014).Moreover, it was also observed that TEC was lowered in ND affected flocks of broiler birds.
Haemoglobin concentration (Hb) of normal broiler birds was noticed as 10.1 a ±0.31(g/dl) while that of ND affected birds was 8.7 b ±0.26 (g/dl).This decrease in Hb concentration in ND affected birds was significant (p-value<0.05).Results obtained in this study are supporting the findings of Adeyemo and Sani (2013), which also obtained the same results.HCT (%) of healthy broiler chicken was found greater than ND affected broilers and was found significant (p-value<0.05).The findings of current study for HCT are supporting the findings of Adeyemo and Sani (2013).HCT% of infected broilers was very much lowered.The severe anaemia (decease in Hb & TEC) observed in ND affected chickens may likely be due to possible loss of blood from gastrointestinal tract ulcers, haemorrhages in proventriculus and also due to intravascular hemolysis (Chekwube et al., 2014;Calderon et al., 2005).
to compare the haematological values of healthy broilers with the ND affected broiler birds.

table 1 :
Haematological parameters of healthy and ND affected broiler birds