Anticoccidial activity of <i>Carica papaya</i> and <i>Vernonia amygdalina</i> extract

Abstract

The anticoccidial effect of C. papaya and V. amygdalina crude juice was tested on 100 Eimeria tenella experimentally infected day-old Isa-brown male chicks in a completely randomized design, as an alternative coccidiosis control measure. Each chick received 3 x 104 E. tenella oocysts doses. The first and the second groups were orally treated with papaya and vernonia juice, for consecutive 5 days. The third and the fourth groups were medicated (sulfadimidine) and unmedicated controls. The papaya treatment improved the survivability by 20% compared with the unmedicated control group. Neither death nor bloody feces were found in the medicated control chick group. Similar body weight gains were observed in all groups at the end of the second week post inoculation. However, the papaya and vernonia effect represents only 59.31 and 40.78% of the medicated control efficacy, respectively, in terms of oocysts excretion reduction. Carica papaya did demonstrate in this first herein preliminary study an anticoccidial effect, however, the active substance need to be extracted and its dose and toxicity threshold to be further investigated.Keywords: Coccidiosis, chick; anticoccidian, medicinal plant, oocysts.