Table 3. The effects of increasing stocking density on blood parameters of Ross 308 broiler chickens.

	1Stocking density rates						P value
2Parameters	SD10	SD15	SD20	SD25	SD30	3SEM	GLM	Linear	Quadratic
Lymphocytes (×109/L)	2.54	2.79	1.92	2.56	1.50	0.405	0.189	0.090	0.407
Monocytes (×109/L)	1.24	1.31	2.56	1.45	1.81	0.464	0.353	0.403	0.426
Platelets (×109/L)	47.26	47.33	39.66	38.95	35.74	8.051	0.792	0.210	0.986
Heterophils (×109/L)	11.32	14.27	14.81	14.19	11.56	2.891	0.866	0.963	0.255
WBC (×109/L)	15.26	18.41	19.29	18.23	14.91	3.186	0.828	0.927	0.216
Haematocrits (%)	36.34	34.3	34.25	36.4	36.0	0.828	0.209	0.605	0.124
Glucose (mmol/L)	6.22	5.98	6.05	5.77	5.63	0.217	0.356	0.047	0.856
Creatinine (mol/L)	9.42	10.1	9.5	9.6	9.3	0.645	0.919	0.711	0.595
SDMA	2.70a	4.77c	5.9d	5.99e	4.51b	0.677	0.017	0.027	0.003
Phosphorus (mmol/L)	4.25	3.72	5.25	4.5	4.67	0.512	0.34	0.344	0.662
Calcium (mmol/L)	2.36	2.38	2.19	2.38	2.35	0.087	0.506	0.944	0.406
Total protein (g/L)	105	109.7	111.7	108.9	107	5.434	0.922	0.847	0.364
Albumin (g/L)	68.7a	125.8c	142.4e	134.41d	121.73b	15.39	0.024	0.023	0.007
ALT	69.3a	125.8b	142.4e	134.41c	141.73d	14.33	0.009	0.002	0.03
ALKP	390.6	431.5	449.6	488.6	516.1	59.48	0.615	0.100	0.978
GGT	33.35c	32.17b	31.68a	36.28e	35.17d	1.118	0.04	0.056	0.262
Cholesterol (mmol/L)	4.59	4.34	4.27	4.58	4.95	0.384	0.749	0.417	0.251
Urea (mmol/L)	2.15	2.01	2.22	2.07	2.54	0.211	0.451	0.212	0.278

^a,b,c,d,eMeans with common superscripts do not differ (P > 0.05).

¹Stocking density rates: SD10 = stocking density of 10 birds/pen; SD15 = stocking density of 15 birds/pen; SD20 = stocking density of 20 birds/pen; SD25 = stocking density of 25 birds/pen; SD30 = stocking density of 30 birds/pen.

²Parmeters: WBC = white blood cells; ALT = alanine transaminase; ALKP = alkaline phosphatase; SDMA = symmetric dimethylarginine; GGT = gamma-glutamyl transferase.

³SEM = standard error of the mean.