The herb, Artemisia(A) annua, a member of the composital family, has been used successfully for malaria(Plasmodium sp) patients in china. Since the genera of Plasmodium and Eimeria(E) tenella are related, it is presumed that A annua may also be effective against E tenella.
In order to study the anticoccidial effects of A annua the chickens inoculated with E tenella were treated with the extract of A annua in drinking water and the results were compared to those of non-medicated, infected control (NIC) and non-medicated, non-infected control (NNC) group.
A annua demonstrated anticoccidial effects by showing, compared to NIC group, improved results in all parameters, such as bloody diarrhea, lesion scores, the numbers of excereted oocysts in feces, body weight gain and feed conversion rate. Anticoccidial index (ACI) of the A annua treated group (123.4) was higher than that of NIC group (96.9).
These results indicate that Artemisia annua has anticoccidial effects on the Eimeria tenella.
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