PROPHYLACTIC AND THERAPEUTIC EVALUATION OF Vernonia amygdalina, Carica papaya AND Moringa oleifera IN COCCIDIAL INFECTION IN BROILER CHICKEN

Abstract

The emergence of drug resistant strains of coccidial organisms has made the use of natural remedies to become a promising alternative in managing coccidiosis in poultry industry. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assay the efficacy of Vernonia amygdalina, Carica papaya, and Moringa oleifera in water administration against the disease. Four phases of experiments were designed and carried out for evaluation of the prophylactic and therapeutic levels three plant extracts. In in vivo studies, a 5×2 factorial experiment was set up with one hundred and thirty-five (135) day-old broiler chickens distributed into nine (9) groups of five birds were used for each phase. The phytochemical constituents (quantitative and qualitative) and antioxidants properties of the plant extracts were determined using standard methods. A suspension of sporulated Eimeria tenella oocysts obtained from the National Veterinary Research Institute, Vom, Plateau State was administered at 0.2 ml containing 3×103 opg orally/bird to establish infection. At 28 days of brooding, the therapeutic groups were challenged with 0.2 ml of sporulated oocysts orally/birds and monitored by faecal screening. After the seventh day of post challenge, the plant extracts were administered for seven days at 1000 mg/ml, 2000 mg/ml and 4000 mg/ml/ litre in water to determine the therapeutic indices of the plant extracts. For prophylactic studies on the plant extracts, the experimental birds were given the extracts in water for seven days at 1000 mg/ml, 2000 mg/ml and 4000 mg/ml/ litre of water respectively. Thereafter, they were challenged with 0.2 ml/ bird (3×103 opg) of the sporulated oocysts orally. The control group was treated with a commercial coccidiostat (Sulphaquinoxaline, Diaveridine and Vit. K) at the recommended dose. The negative control group was challenged but not treated while another group was unchallenged and untreated to compare with the extract treated groups. After seven days of both prophylactic and therapeutic treatments, faecal samples were collected weekly to determine the number of oocysts per gram of feaces (OPG) using MacMaster method. Clinical observations such as lesion scoring, morbidity and mortality rates as well as haematological analysis were documented. The stopathological effects of the plant extracts on ceaca of the birds were also assessed. All data collected from different phases of the experiments were subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT) was used to separate means with significant differences. Findings revealed that the extracts contained varying amounts of important pharmacologically active ingredients e.g Saponin, tannins, flavonoids, phenols etc. The three plant extracts significantly increased the shedding of oocysts in a dose dependent response. Serum biochemical parameters of the birds treated with the plant extracts were not significantly (p>0.05) affected by the doses and the nature of the treatment. Histopathological examination of the villi showed denudation, oedema of the epithelium in the infected but untreated and some prophylactic groups, while villi hyperplasia was noticed in those that recovered from the infection among therapeutic and prophylactic groups. Therapeutically, V. amygdalina was very effective as a single use while the combination of V. amygdalina and C. papaya had a synergistic effect on coccidial infection control. The plant extracts also effectively reduced the impact of Eimeria tenella infection in the prophylactic treated broiler chickens as expressed in their survival and faecal oocysts evaluation