17/08/2007 00:00:00
Uganda: Medicinal plants to treat poultry diseases
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Farmers are opening up to the idea of using herbs to treat poultry
diseases, and many poultry farmers know just how to do this.
About 80% of the poultry farmers researched in Uganda know how to use
medicinal plants to treat poultry diseases, according to research
carried out by Makerere University in central and eastern Uganda.
Professor Bukenya Ziraba from Makerere University Department of Botany
said that there are plenty farmers are in fact using medicinal plant to
treat coughs, diarrhoea, swollen eyes, mites, worms and lice as well as
Newcastle prophylaxis and coccidiosis.
The research was carried out in Mbale, Rakai and Mbarara districts.
Medicinal plant species like Capsicum frutescens (kamulali) and cannabis
sativa (enjaga) were used in all the three districts, while Nicotiana
tobaccum (taaba), Aloe sp (lukaka), Vernonia amygadalina (omubirizi) and
tagets mihuta (kawunyira) species were used in Rakai and Mbarara.
Ziraba says that the most common way of preparing and administering of
the medicine is simply to crush the plant material, add water and
administer the concoction orally.
"Since some of the farmers cannot afford to buy modern poultry drugs,
medicinal plants work as a substitute," he says, adding that using
medicinal plants saves farmers losses due to outbreaks of diseases.
Ziraba recently presented this research during a symposium on drugs
discovery from African flora, organised by the Natural Research Network
for Eastern and Central Africa.
http://www.worldpoultry.net/news/id2205-27022/medicinal_plants_to_treat_poultry_diseases.html
Source:
http://www.ukcia.org/news/shownewsarticle.php?articleid=12794
Author:
World Poultry News via UKCIA
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