In vivo effect of herbal products against Histomonas meleagridis in turkeys

Harold M.J.F. van Der Heijden (1) , Wil J.M. Landman (2)

1 R&D
2 Poultry

Histomoniasis is a serious disease in poultry. All chemotherapeutics with known efficacy against its causative agent, Histomonas meleagridis, have been banned from use as prophylactic or therapeutic use in production animals. In search for possible alternatives, the in vivo effects of the herbal products Enteroguard™ and Protophyt™ were examined. Two week-old turkeys allocated in 13 groups of 18 birds were either sham inoculated (negative control group) or with 100 or 3,162 or 200,000 histomonads per bird. Control groups (no feed additives, dimetridazole, or Histostat-50™) were included in the study. No morbidity or mortality was observed in the negative control group or in the groups inoculated with 100 histomonads per bird. Mortality was 100% in the groups inoculated with 200,000 histomonads per bird and either untreated (positive control group), or receiving Protophyt SP™, Protophyt™ SP and Protophyt™ B, Enteroguard™, or Histostat-50™. Mortality was 17% in the dimetridazole treated group. In the groups inoculated with 3,162 histomonads per bird, mortality was 100% for the positive control group and the group receiving Enteroguard™, and 94% in the group receiving Protophyt™ SP. In this study Enteroguard™ or Protophyt™ were not found to be effective against histomoniasis.

Mots clés: Life Sciences

Harold M.J.F. van Der Heijden, Wil J.M. Landman. In vivo effect of herbal products against Histomonas meleagridis in turkeys. Avian Pathology, 2008, 37 (01), pp.45-50. ⟨10.1080/03079450701784883⟩. ⟨hal-00540104⟩