Effect of intracerebrovascular injection of ghrelin on some of erythropoietic indicators in 42-day-old broiler chicken

Objective: To evaluate the erythropoietic indicators in 42-day-old broiler chicks following intracerebrovascular injection of exogenous rat ghrelin at 21 day of age. Methods: A total of 90 male chicks were divided into three experimental groups including three replicates (10 chicks for each replicate) group 1 without any ghrelin injection, group 2 subjected to intracerebrovascular injection of 0.5 mg ghrelin/kg b.w. and group 3 subjected to intracerebrovascular injection of 1.0 mg ghrelin/kg b.w. at 21 days of age. Results: Intracerebrovascular injection of 0.5 or 1.0 mg ghrelin/kg b.w. at 21 days of age did not have any significant effect on the measured erythropoietic indicators including red blood cell, hematocrit, haemoglobin, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration. Conclusions:Intracerebrovascular injection of exogenous rat ghrelin does not have any considerable effect on erythropoietic activity of broiler chickens.