HaiderTuma Mehde HAIDER KAAB

Prevention of Newcastle disease has received a lot of interest across the world. The high productivity performance of the commercial chickens' breeds has negative effects on the immune system and animal welfare. As a result, the current study aimed to investigate the benefits of adding Artemisia powder at levels of 0.5% and 1% to broilers' feed as a growth and health promoter. A total of 120 commercial broiler chickens were grown on the floor in a chicken house and separated into three groups, including one control and two treatment groups. Each group contained 40 chickens subdivided into two replicates. The three groups, namely G1 (chickens without Artemisia powder, as a control group), G2, and G3 in which chickens were fed with basal diet plus 0.5% and 1% Artemisia powder, respectively, were differentiated based on their diet throughout 35 days of the experiment. The measured parameters included the immune response to Newcastle disease vaccine, blood biochemical parameters, and growth performance as well as relative weight for the spleen and bursa of Fabricius. A diet containing 1% Artemisia powder significantly improved antibody titer against Newcastle disease, body weight, and weight gain. Thus, the addition of 1% of Artemisia powder to the broiler's diet can improve immune response against Newcastle disease and growth performance.

The development of new veterinary drugs to treat and prevent poultry parasitic infections, as well as the study of their safety is a hot topic for modern parasitology. The purpose of this research was to study the subchronic toxicity of the ivermectin and butaphosphan-based drugs at a therapeutic and threefold therapeutic dose during a seven-day oral administration to the Hisex White chickens. The provisional name of the drug is Iverbutan. The chickens from the first experimental group were given the drug at a threefold therapeutic dose of 3 mL of the drug per one liter of drinking water. The chickens from the second experimental group were given the drug at a therapeutic dose of 1 mL of Iverbutan per one liter of drinking water. The chickens from the control group received water without the drug. The chickens were weighed, and then the body temperature and blood samples from the axillary vein were measured on days 1, 8, and 17 of the experiment before the morning feeding. On day 8 of the study, the chickens from the first experimental group showed a 7.4% decrease in body weight and increase in body temperature by 0.8%, an increase in alanine aminotransferase activity by 2.1 times, aspartate aminotransferase activity by 1.6 times, and bile acids by 1.4 times. Moreover, there was a 4.6% decrease in glucose concentration, a 3.5% increase in lactate dehydrogenase activity, a 7.3% decrease in triglycerides, as well as a decrease in hemoglobin by 3.2% and erythrocytes by 10.6% in the first experimental group, compared to the control group. On day 17 of the experiment, the above blood parameters in the chickens from the first experimental group did not significantly differ from the control group, indicating the reversibility of the hepatotoxic effect. In this regard, a threefold therapeutic dose can be considered a threshold. The chickens from the second experimental group showed no changes in their physiological status as compared to the control. Thus, the study results confirm the safety of the drug in the recommended dosage regimen.