Leucogram of meat quails inoculated in ovo with conjugated linoleic acid and lauric acid

Leucograma de codornices de engorde inoculadas in ovo con ácido linoleico conjugado y ácido láurico

Objective. Analyze the leukogram of meat-type quail inoculated in ovo with conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and lauric acid (LA) while exposed to a sanitary challenge. Material and methods. The drinking water was placed seven days before the arrival of the quails and it was only refilled throughout the experiment. The treatments were applied on 480 fertile eggs in the 7th day of incubation: Negative control: not perforated; positive control: injected with the diluent (corn oil; CO); CLA120: 120 mg CLA /CO; CLA240: 240 mg CLA /CO; LA60: 60 mg LA /CO and LA90: 90 mg LA /CO. A completely randomized design with four replications was used. Total leukocytes and the differential leukocyte count were evaluated at 21 and 36 days of age. Results. No statistically effects (p>0.05) of any inoculations were observed in the parameters evaluated. We observed an average of 10927.1±2933.6 cell/μl, 61.6 ± 7.31%, 32.0 ± 7.13% and 0.57 ± 0.21 for leukocyte count, lymphocyte, heterophile and heterophile/lymphocyte ratio, respectively, at 21 days. At 36 days, we observed an overall average of 13291.7 ± 3559.0 cell/μl, 65.0 ± 9.29%, 29.3 ± 9.93% and 0.50 ± 0.24, for those same variables, respectively. Conclusions. The in ovo inoculation levels of CLA and LA did not affect the leucogram of meat-type quails raised in sanitary challenge.