Haematological Values and Plasma Protein Concentrations in Rabbit Bucks Experimentally Infected with Trypanosoma Brucei Brucei

This study was designed to determine the haematological values and plasma protein concentration of 20 adult rabbit (bucks), experimentally infected with Trypanosoma brucei over a period of 12 weeks. Ten out of the 20 rabbit bucks were inoculated intraperitoneally with 1ml of saline diluted blood containing 1 x 10 6 trypanosomes T. brucei brucei, while the remaining ten rabbit bucks were left uninfected. The infected rabbit bucks were monitored for nine weeks while the others served as control post infection. There was progressive decrease in PCV with mean values of 40.07±0.49 and 36.42±1.15 for the control and infected groups respectively. Haemoglobin concentrations had mean values of 14.31±1.01 a and 12.21±0.39 b for the control and infected groups respectively, while plasma concentrations of infected and control groups had mean values of 6.48±0.08 a and 6.41±0.17 b respectively. The study revealed a significant decrease (p˂0.05) in haematological values and plasma protein concentrations of rabbit bucks infected with Trypanosoma brucei when compared to the control.