Development of a Potent Anti-coccidial Drug: A Phyto-Synthetic Approach

Abstract

Coccidiosis is a well-known parasitic disease causing major economic problem in the poultry industry and responsible for several deaths of poultry and loses to poultry farmers all over the world. Despite several progresses aimed at the mitigation of this disease through formulation of synthetic drugs and phyto-medicine, the scourge of the disease is still recorded in different farms and at an uncontrollable state. Although different mode of its transmission has been recorded and lots of potent drugs formulated, identifying the specific survival strategy of the parasites and the quest to develop a portent drug that could completely kill the parasites still remains an enigma. Here, we report an extraordinary case where we conducted a study through the addition of garlic to synthetic drugs to test the efficacy of the anti-coccidial effect of graded concentrations of garlic powder (GP) in combination with amprolium on faecal oocysts counts of coccidia and measured weight gain in broiler chickens post treatment. To achieve our set goal, seventy day old birds were randomly assigned to seven groups (A-G) of 10 replicates each. Sixty of them were orally inoculated with 6 × 10³ sporulated oocysts of Eimeria tenella on day 19 while the remaining 10 as negative control. Groups A-C were treated with 12 mg GP+48 mg AMP, 24 mg GP+48 mg AMP and 48 mg GP+48 mg AMP respectively, while Groups D and E received 48 mg of amprolium alone and 28 mg of the synergy of amprolium and sulpha quinoxaline respectively, with Group F serving as the positive control whereas Group G as negative control. Via intense monitoring of the experiment, we were able to understand that inoculation of broiler chickens with 6 × 10³ sporulated oocysts of Eimeria significantly reduced growth rate and triggered the shedding of oocysts in their faeces. A closer look at the understanding of the unfolded results after seven days of treatment, indicated that faecal oocysts count reduced significantly in all the treated birds with the highest effect in groups treated with 48 mg GP+48 mg AMP, 24 mg GP+48 mg AMP and 28 mg (AMP+SUL) while the untreated group had the highest oocysts output with a significant difference established (P<0.05) between treatments. With regards to weight gain, a significant increased in all the treated groups was recorded with the highest effect observed in groups treated with 24 mg GP+48 mg AMP and 28 mg AMP+SUL. In conclusion, the combination of 48 mg of garlic powder and 48 mg of amprolium had a similar anti-coccidial effect when compared with the synergy of 28 mg of amprolium and sulphaquinoxaline in the treatment of Eimeria tenella in chickens and can therefore be used as an alternative therapy.