Browsing by Author "Muralidharan, Kathirvel"
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ArticleItem Open Access Efficacy of a herbal complex against caecal coccidiosis in broiler chickens(2009) Chandrakesan, Periasamy; Muralidharan, Kathirvel; Dinesh Kumar, Vijayakumar; Ponnudurai, Gurusamy; et al.; TANUVASThe anticoccidial efficacy of a herbal complex consisting of Solanum nigram (35%), Aloe vera (15%), Moringa indica (35%) and Mentha arvensis (15%) was tested against Eimeria tenella infection in broilers. Thirty day old broiler chicks were divided into 5 experimental groups, each group having 6 chicks, and were maintained on an anticoccidial free diet. Groups A, B, C and D were challenged with 30,000 sporulated oocysts of E. tenella at day 28 of age, while group E served as the uninfected unmedicated control. After 3 days of challenge infection, the birds belonging to groups A and B were treated with herbal complex at the dose rate of 5 and 10% for 7 days continuously. Group C was fed with Salinomycin mixed feed for the same period. In the treatment groups, the birds that received 10% (group B) herbal complex showed better body mass gain between the 4th and 5th weeks (344.34 ± 59.81gm), superior feed conversion ratio (1.77 ± 0.43) and moderate caecal length (11.5 ± 1.19 cm). However, there was no significant difference in the oocyst output between all the treated and control groups. The body mass gain, FCR and caecal length of the uninfected unmedicated group were 461.86 ± 87.03, 1.70 ± 0.46 and 16.9 ± 1.2 cm respectively. Mortality of birds was recorded in groups A and D only.