Abstract
Most of the commercial poultry grower use antibiotics as growth promoters and to reduce the chance of occurrence of infectious diseases, which usually result in higher costs of production and ultimately lower net returns. Some plants and their extracts improve feed intake and their enzymatic activity may have antimicrobial, coccidiostatic or anthelmintic effects. Some researchers have investigated that neem when used in poultry feed; increases antibody titer against infectious bursal and Newcastle disease (ND). A total of 144 day old commercial broiler chicks were used in this study. The present study showed that mean antibody titer values against ND on day 42 in the groups A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, C1, C2, C3, C4 were 2048, 1024, 512, 128, 2048, 1024, 512, 64, 2048, 1024, 1024, 64 respectively. The mean antibody titer against infectious bursal diseases (IBD) at day (42) in group A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, C1, C2, C3 and C4 was found to be 3413, 3368, 3181, 2813, 3552, 3334, 3190, 2884, 3611, 3458, 3319 and 2814 respectively. During this study it was concluded that addition of neem leaves in broiler feed has better effects on antibody production against new castle and infectious bursal disease viruses. Key words: Newcastle disease, antibody titer, infectious bursal disease, neem leaves.
Highlights
Pakistan is amongst those countries that are in the race of development and facing serious animal protein shortage (Maqbool et al, 2005)
Most of the commercial poultry grower use antibiotics as growth promoters and to reduce the chance of occurrence of infectious diseases, which usually result in higher costs of production and lower net returns
The present study showed that mean antibody titer values against Newcastle disease (ND) on day 42 in the groups A1, A2, A3, A4, B1, B2, B3, B4, C1, C2, C3, C4 were 2048, 1024, 512, 128, 2048, 1024, 512, 64, 2048, 1024, 1024, 64 respectively
Summary
Pakistan is amongst those countries that are in the race of development and facing serious animal protein shortage (Maqbool et al, 2005). Poultry industry has made enormous progress in boosting animal protein in the country. It has been recommended that the use of penicillins, tetracyclines, tylosin, and sulfonamides as growth promoters be discontinued (Patrick et al, 2003). That is why these days poultry scientists are pondering, how poultry farmers can rear birds without using antibiotics and other drugs. Pakistan has cultivated medicinal plants over a large area in different climatic conditions. All these plants have substances which can be used in poultry in one or the other way. Neem (A. indica) is among one of those trees in the world which are currently under extensive research
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