Radiation induced blood pathology in chick-erythrocytes and related parameters

White leghorn male chicks at 15 days post-hatching were subjected to acute (2.10 Gy and 6.60 Gy) and fractionated (2 x 2.10 Gy) whole body gamma radiation exposure at the high dose rate of 0.60 Gy/sec to study the nature of haematological changes induced in the animals which were maintained for a maximum period of 60 days post irradiation. The investigated parameters include total red blood cell counts, haemoglobin content, haematocrit value, mean corpuscular volume and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration values. The results show that the haematological changes induced with 2.10 Gy and 2 x 2.10 Gy fractionated dosage are reversible and do not cause permanent damage to the erythroid characteristics. However, the system failed to recover with 6.60 Gy whole body acute exposure.