Available online at www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com Scholars Research Library Archives of Applied Science Research, 2013, 5 (2):172-176 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html) ISSN 0975-508X CODEN (USA) AASRC9 172 Scholars Research Library Physiological responses of rabbits fed graded levels of Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM): Some aspects of haematology and serum biochemistry Terzungwe Ahemen 1 , Adakole H. Abu 2 and Lois K. Iorgilim 1 1 Department of Animal Breeding and Physiology, University of Agriculture, Makurdi 2 Department of Veterinary Animal Physiology, University of Agriculture, Makurdi _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT The experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of Moringa oleifera leaf meal (MOLM) on haematology and serum biochemical parameters of weaner rabbits. Twenty (20) weaned rabbits of mixed breeds, aged between 4- 5weeks with initial average live weight of 627.5g were randomly allocated into four (4) treatment groups with five (5) rabbits per treatment. Each rabbit served as replicate. The rabbits were fed diets containing 0%, 5%, 10%, and 15% Moringa leaf meal in diets designated as T 1 , T 2 , T 3 , and T 4 respectively. The experimental diets and clean drinking water were supplied ad-libitum throughout the experimental periods of 8 weeks. The result of the experiment showed no significant (P>0.05) differences among the treatments for packed cell volume (PCV), red blood cell (RBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular haemolobin concentration (MCHC), white blood cell, lymphocyte, neutrophils, monocytes, basophils and eosinophils. Significant effect of diet was only observed on haemoglobin (Hb) concentration whose values were however within the normal range for healthy rabbits. No significant (P>0.05) influence of diet was observed on all the serum biochemical parameters studied. Therefore, it could be concluded that inclusion of Moringa oleifera leaf meal in the diets of weaner rabbits up to 15% has no adverse effect on blood profile of rabbits. Key words: Rabbits, haematology, serum biochemistry, Moringa oleifera leaf meal _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Rabbit meat production has been on the increase in Nigeria in recent years. The rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) is the most productive meat producing among all domesticated animals. The feeding habits offer no appreciable competition with man. This is because it can subsist on green as basal diets. In addition to this, rabbits have a number of other characteristics that might be advantageous to subsistence farming system, such as their small body size, short generation interval with a relatively short gestation period of 30-31days.The use of forage and other agro- industrial by-products have become an area of interest for many researchers because of the challenges posed by the high cost of conventional feedstuff. Recently, there has been interest in the utilization of Moringa (Moringa oleifera) commonly called horse radish tree or drum stick tree, as potential inexpensive protein source for livestock feeding [1]. It is rich in carotene, ascorbic acid, iron and in the two amino acids generally deficient in other feeds i.e methionine and cystine [2]. Blood analysis is an established means of assessing clinical and health status of animal on feeding trials since ingestion of dietary components has measurable effect on blood composition [3] and may be considered as an