Coccidiosis caused by Eimeria species is a serious disease in the poultry industry. Anticoccidial efcacy, growth and haematological parameters of ethanolic extract of Aloe vera were tested against coccidiosis in Kabir chick- en. Fresh A.... more
Coccidiosis caused by Eimeria species is a serious disease in the poultry industry. Anticoccidial efcacy, growth and haematological parameters of ethanolic extract of Aloe vera were tested against coccidiosis in Kabir chick- en. Fresh A. vera leaves were harvested, dried in gentle heat, ground and the sieved powder was used to prepare an ethanolic extract. Chicken were infected with approximately 3200 Eimeria oocysts until they began shedding oocysts in their faeces. Te extract was administered at diferent doses of 0.16 g/chicken/day (T1), 0.32 g/chicken/day (T2) and 0.84 g/chicken/day (T3) directly into the mouth of the chicken. Chicken in the T4 group were given sulfaqui- noxalina-LH, those in T5 were infected but not treated while T6 was the neutral group. Carcass and haematological parameters were determined. Tere were signifcant diferences (P < 0.05) in the feed intake between experimental groups. Chicken of T3 had the highest body mass gain (11.7%) while those of T5 had the least (3.1%). Te highest feed conversion ratio (14.7%) was recorded in chickens of T3 while the overall feed conversion ratio was recorded in T4 (18.6%). Te weights of diferent organs were similar (P > 0.05) in all groups. Te highest oocyst count reduction rate was observed in T4 (98.7%) and the value reduced in a dose dependent manner in the groups receiving A. vera /uL) and lowest in T5 extract. Red blood cell count (RBC) was signifcantly highest (P = 0.043) in T4 (2.8±0.3 x 10 12 (0.8±0.3 x 10 /uL). White blood cell count (WBC) was also signifcantly highest (P = 0.031) in T4 (98.8±0.3 x 10 12 9 /uL) and lowest in T5 (18.3±11.8 x 10 /uL). Haemoglobin levels were not signifcantly diferent between treatment 9 groups. Tis extract could be incorporated into the feed or drink of chicken for the prophylactic treatment of coccid- iosis before outbreaks.
With the aim of improving the productivity of local chicken, reciprocal crossbreeding experiments were carried out to compare the performances of Hubbard rooster x local chicken (HL) and local rooster x Hubbard female (LH) to those of... more
With the aim of improving the productivity of local chicken, reciprocal crossbreeding experiments were carried out to compare the performances of Hubbard rooster x local chicken (HL) and local rooster x Hubbard female (LH) to those of pure Hubbard (HH) and local (LL) breeds simultaneously reared in the same conditions in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. The main result showed that the effect of genetic type has significantly influenced the studied parameters. The analysis of egg characteristics revealed that the HH and LH crossbreds produced eggs of statistically comparable weight (P>0.05) of 70.28 ± 0.62g and 69.51 ± 0.58g, respectively. These eggs proved to be heavier and of significantly higher measurements (P<0.05) than those of the LL and HL crossbreds, which in turn presented best shape indices of respectively, 73.95 ± 1.20 and 72.79 ± 0.65. The study of growth, conformation and carcass revealed that HH chicks significantly consumed more feed (P>0.05) than the three...
With the aim of improving the productivity of local chicken, reciprocal crossbreeding experiments were carried out to compare the performances of Hubbard rooster x local chicken (HL) and local rooster x Hubbard female (LH) to those of... more
With the aim of improving the productivity of local chicken, reciprocal crossbreeding experiments were carried out to compare the performances of Hubbard rooster x local chicken (HL) and local rooster x Hubbard female (LH) to those of pure Hubbard (HH) and local (LL) breeds simultaneously reared in the same conditions in the Western Highlands of Cameroon. The main result showed that the effect of genetic type has significantly influenced the studied parameters. The analysis of egg characteristics revealed that the HH and LH crossbreds produced eggs of statistically comparable weight (P>0.05) of 70.28 ± 0.62g and 69.51 ± 0.58g, respectively. These eggs proved to be heavier and of significantly higher measurements (P<0.05) than those of the LL and HL crossbreds, which in turn presented best shape indices of respectively, 73.95 ± 1.20 and 72.79 ± 0.65. The study of growth, conformation and carcass revealed that HH chicks significantly consumed more feed (P>0.05) than the three others genetic type throughout the study period and had the best performances (P>0.05) from the first to the seventh week for all considered parameters. The final weight of HH was 1504.69 ± 88.07g, followed by LH (762.78 ± 122.68 g), then HL (451.17 ± 62.13 g) and finally LL (422.31 ± 20.94 g). On the other hand, LH chicks had better mean daily weight gain (31.34 ± 16.78) and feed conversion (2.86 ± 0.06) than LL (4.19 ± 0.57) and HL (12, 08 ± 5.29). But whatever the period, HH chicks made the best feed conversion (2.04 ± 0.07 and 2.58 ± 0.17 for the starting and growing period), carcass yield and heart weight (72.28 ±1.13 % and 12.2 ± 2.33 g). On the contrary, there was no significant difference for the liver and crop weight (12.20 ± 3.65 g; 13.56 ± 2.65 g and 10.07 ± 3.16 g; 12.00 ± 1.77 g) respectively for HL and LL.
