Field trial of medicinal plant, Bidens pilosa, against eimeriosis in broilers.
Eimeriosis is a severe protozoan disease in poultry. Because of increasing concern about drug residue and drug resistance with the use of anticoccidial drugs, natural products are emerging as an alternative and complementary approach to control avian eimeriosis. Our previous publication showed that feed supplemented with B. pilosa (BP) was effective at combating chicken eimeriosis in experimental settings. However, its efficacy against chicken eimeriosis under field conditions is not known. Here, we investigated the efficacy of BP against eimeriosis on an organic chicken farm. We found that feed supplemented with BP, at the dose of 0.025% of feed or more, significantly reduced Eimeria infection. This treatment increased body weight gain and reduced feed conversion ratio, leading to superior growth performance. It lowered morbidity/mortality rate, decreased oocysts per gram of feces and gut pathology and augmented the anticoccidial index. Collectively, these data demonstrated the potential of BP to control chicken eimeriosis on chicken farms. BP can, therefore, be used as an effective means to control eimeriosis.
Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan.
Cicero Lee-Tian
CL
Chang
Department of Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taiwan.|Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Cheng-Ying
CY
Yang
Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.
Thangarasu
T
Muthamilselvan
Agricultural Biotechnology Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan.|Department of Aquaculture, National Ocean University, Keelung Chung, Taiwan.|Institute of Pharmacology, Yang-Ming University, Taiwan.|Department of Life Sciences, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan.
Wen-Chin
WC
Yang
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D031176:Bidens / Q000737:chemistry*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002645:Chickens; D003048:Coccidiosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D004539:Eimeria; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology; D010946:Plants, Medicinal / Q000737:chemistry*; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000469:parasitology*