Studies on the efficacy of Spigelia anthelmia extract as anthelminthic in growing goats

Spigelia anthelmia is an important herbal remedy for worm infestation, neurologic disorder, pericarditis and other diseases of the heart that is continuously being used in traditional medical and homeopathic practices. Aqueous extract of Spigelia anthelmia leaf (AESAL) was administered orally to growing goats to determine its effect on gastrointestinal parasite of growing goats. Eighteen  growing goats were randomly allotted to three treatments with each treatment replicated thrice. Goats in treatment served as the control receiving no treatment, those in treatment 2 and 3 were administered with AESAL at a dose of 1.5ml/Kg body weight and 2ml/Kg body weight respectively. The phytochemical content of AESAL was determined using standard analytical procedure. Result revealed that AESAL contained 8.14±0.26 mg/g alkaloids, 145±1.49 mg/g tannin, 19.26±1.25 mg/g Saponin, and  6.7±0.92 mg/g flavonoid and 1.65±0.02 mg/g polyphenol. Round worm and liver fluke are the prevalent helminthes in the study area and the different doses of AESAL significantly (P<0.05) reduced the mean egg count (epg) of helminthes. The study revealed that AESAL is an effective anthelmintic in goats and dosage of 2ml/Kg body weight is the most effective as it resulted in total deparatization at 21 days post treatment.Keywords: Spigelia anthelmia; leaf extract; phytochemical; anthelminthic; growing goats

Growth performance, haematological characteristic and serum biochemistry of Japanese quails fed with diets containing African pear seed meal

The growth, haematological characteristics and serum biochemistry of one hundred and thirty-five Japanese quails fed diets    containing African Pear Seed Meal (APSM) was investigated in a completely randomised design experiment with five treatments and each treatment was replicated three times. APSM was fed at 0%, 15%, 30%, 45% and 60% levels of inclusion as partial and  total replacement for maize. Data collected included average feed intake (AFI), average weight gain (AWG), specific growth rate (SGR), operating protein efficiency ratio (PER), feed conversion ratio (FCR), haemoglobin (Hb), packed cell volume (PCV), white blood cell (WBC), red blood cell (RBC), Mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCH), mean   corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) serum total protein (PRO), Albumin (ALB), glucose (GLU), creatinine (CREAT), cholesterol (CHOL) and Alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Results revealed that the increasing level of inclusion of APSM significantly (P<0.05) depressed the weight gain, specific growth rate, protein efficiency ratio, and feed conversion ratio of the birds. The   increasing level of APSM significantly (P<0.05) influenced all the haematological variables except RBC and serum biochemical variables except ALB and CREAT. Birds fed with diet containing 15% had the optimum performance; hence, APSM can be   included at 15% in the diets of quails.Keywords: African pear seed, quail birds, Nutritional values, Haematology, Blood Biochemistr