USE OF ETHNO VETERINARY MEDICINE (EVM) KNOWLEDGE IN THE  POULTRY & FARM ANIMALS IN INDIA

USE OF ETHNO VETERINARY MEDICINE (EVM) KNOWLEDGE IN THE  POULTRY & FARM ANIMALS IN INDIA

Compiled & shared by-DR. RAJESH KUMAR SINGH, JAMSHEDPUR

Introduction

Ethno veterinary practices concern to animal healthcare is as old as the domestication of various livestock species. They comprise belief, knowledge, practices and skills pertaining to healthcare and management of livestock. The Indian subcontinent has rich ethno veterinary health traditions that are the products of decades of experiences.The traditional medicines that are commonly used for animal healthcare can cut down costs considerably. Moreover, they are readily available to the ordinary farmer.The key challenges are to find out the effectiveness and contemporary relevance of these practices. Before the introduction of western medicine, all livestock keepers relied on these traditional practices.

Livestock production is found to be major source of income in rural and semi urban areas of India. The rural and tribal people are not easily accessible to modern veterinary services for their livestock. They are less economically healthy to cope with various bovine ailments therefore they depend upon their traditional knowledge of healing animals. It serves as a cheap, safe, biodegradable and easily accessible alternative to the synthetic and modern methods of disease control. According to the World Health Organization, at least 80% of people in developing countries depend largely on indigenous practices for the control and treatment of various diseases affecting both human beings and their animals. Livestock owners use a variety of plants and their products to form traditional medicines for primary health care treatment and maintaining animals productive. India is one of the world’s 12 mega-diversity countries accounting for 8% of global plant genetic resources, therefore have a variety of plants to be the source of herbal medicines. Ethno-veterinary medicine has evolved through observations, trials and errors, and passes from one generation to the next through verbal communication. Therefore, these practices are hardly documented and unfortunately largely lost, diluted and distorted. In order to understand its scientific justification, logic and to develop new concepts, it is of utmost need and importance to document the practices involved in EVM. The traditional knowledge of animal healthcare practices requires great attention for pharmaceutical analysis to prospect new drugs in the concerned field.  In the present paper the documentation of ethnic practices used all over the country for livestock treatment has been done. The electronic and print databases were searched for the documentation of ethno veterinary practices. Components of Ethno veterinary Practices Ethno veterinary term does not only comprise of herbal and traditional medicines but it also constitutes informations, practices, beliefs, skills, tools and technologies, selection of breeds and human resources.  It was observed that almost all parts of the plant are used in the preparation of ethno veterinary medicines. These include bark, leaves, stem, flowers, roots, seeds, fruits.

According to the Word Health Organisation (WHO), at least 80% of people in developing countries depend largely on indigenous practices for the control and treatment of various diseases affecting both human beings and animals (Jabbar et al 2005). It was not until recently that more attention was drawn to these practices. Increased attention on ethnoveterinary medicine (EVM) is justified because; it is accessible, easy to prepare and administer at little or no cost at all (Jabbar et al 2005). These practices may be the only option in areas where conventional services are economically unavailable or cannot effectively reach (Mathias and McCorkle 2004), many EVM practices do work and make sound veterinary sense (Schillhorn van Veen 1996). Herbal medicines are known to be broad spectrum and therefore may be a future answer to pathogen resistance to conventional drugs (Mwale et al 2005).

Most rural households in Asia  and other continents keep poultry native to their areas, especially chickens. The major constraints in the production of poultry under rural settings include diseases, poor nutrition and predation (Guèye 1997; Mungube et al 2008). Rural farmers are aware of the need to keep their flocks in good health. However, conventional drugs are either unavailable or too expensive for these resource-poor farmers, hence their dependence on EVM. The use of herbs and other medicinal plants is an integral part of ethnoveterinary practices. It is interesting to note that a number of medicinal plants found in different countries are used to cure the same ailments in livestock.

Knowledge on these indigenous flock health management practices is passed on through oral education from older to younger generations. If not captured and documented, practices that are peculiar to certain ethnic groups or areas may be lost.

Growth in poultry sector can contribute to enhanced nutrition and poverty reduction in India, because a large share of the rural poor is dependent on poultry for food and income. Traditional medicines have the potential to improve the growth as well as health status of the birds.  Ethno veterinary practices involve the traditional beliefs, knowledge, practices and skills pertaining to healthcare and management of livestock and poultry. Ethno-veterinary medicine (EVM) system, an indigenous knowledge on animal health is re-emerging as holistic animal health care.EVM is widely utilized by the family poultry rearers across the country. Poultry diseases seriously affect village chicken production. Antibiotics resistance, residues and withdrawal periods is major problem that affect export marketing.

Their role in organic egg and meat production. Plant and plant parts have been serve as an indispensable source of medicine for indigenous poultry production system. The inherent utility and practical application of indigenous medicinal herbs/plant extract (garlic, cinnamon, tulsi, turmeric, lemon, neem, etc) are used to improving poultry health as well as production with fruitful results.

Advantage:

• Reduces Antibiotics use
• Traditional practice of herbal medicines for poultry health management can diminish the cost of production thereby give more benefit to the farmers.
• Farmers’ self dependence.
• Preserve herbs.
• User friendly, Eco friendly.
• Provide some intervention for viral diseases.

Anti bacterial/ antiviral/  antiseptic:

1.Turmeric – (Curcuma longa) – curcuminoids

2.Garlic – Anti viral – Allium sativum – sulfur-containing compounds alliin, ajoene, diallyl polysulfides, vinyldithiins, S-allylcysteine, and enzymes, saponins, flavonoids, and Maillard reaction products

3.Neem – (Azadirachta indica):

Neem is important herbal medicine having different active principle azadrachtin, nimbin, salanin, melicin, etc. Neem oil is selectively activates the cell mediated immune response by activating macrophage and lymphocytes. Apart from this have wide range of pharmacological activities

NEEM PRODUCTS

Leaves:

Fowl pox –Turmeric and neem paste for external application.

Oil:

Fly control -As spray on litter

Dried fruit:

Immuno stimulant -0.5 to 1 kg per tonne of poultry feed

Thyme oil (thymus vulgaris) – Antibacterial.

Turmric, Black pepper, thyme used to effective control of clostridium perfringens and enterobacteria.

4. 4. Carica papayawhich lyse the bacteria by papain enzyme
5. Sweet flag(Vasambu) – Acorus calamus – α-, β- and γ- asarone, sequesterpenes and acorenone
6. Kuppaimeni(Acalypha indica) – acalyphineandtriacetoneamine
7. Vettukaaya poondu (Tridax procumbens)– 3,6-dimethoxy-5,7,2′,3′,4′-pentahydroxyflavone 7-O-β-D-gluco- pyranoside.
8. Deva-5is a herb formulation composed of five herbs namelyMomordica cochinchinensis, Gentiana decumbens L., Polygonum bistorta L., Hypecoum erectum L. and Terminalia chebula Retz showed in vitro antiviral activity against avian influenza A virus subtype H3N8. Alchemilla mollis extract synergistically potentiates the anti influenza effect of zanamivir.
9. Sweet wormwood(Artemisia annual) extracts inhibited the Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) proliferation in chicken embryos without causing side effects.
10. Essential oils derived from peppermint and eucalyptus showed protective action in broilers against multiple respiratory pathogens mainly Mycoplasma gallisepticumand H9N2 influenza virus infections

Liver stimulant/ hepatoprotective:

1. Keelanelli(Phyllanthus niruri) – lavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids, lignans, polyphenols, tannins, coumarins and saponins .
2. Vellai karisaali(Eclipta prostrata) – coumestans

Herbs for respiratory ailment:

1. 1. Adathoda(Justicia adhatoda) – vasicine

2.Tulsi – (Ocimum tenuiflorum) – oleanolic acid, ursolic acid, rosmarinic acid

3.Karpooravalli – Plectranthus amboinicus- Thymol(41.3%), cineol(13.25%), carvacrol(5.45%), eugenol(4.4%), and caryophyllene(4.2%)

4.Thoothuvali – (Solanum trilobatum) – flavonoids, glycosides, reducing sugar, sterols, tannins, alkaloids and saponins.

Anticoccidial:

Vast usage of sulphanilamide, ionophorous antibiotics, amprolium or synthetic chemical compounds for the treatment of coccidiosis in poultry results in emergence of drug-resistant strains and antibiotic residues in poultry meat posing serious problems to the meat consumers. Sinomenium acutum, sage, Garlic, Aloe vera

Herbs for ectoparasites:

Common temporary external parasites of poultry include fowl ticks (also known as blue bugs), bed bugs and chicken mites (also known as red mites or roost mites). The use of chemicals viz., hydrocarbons, organophosphorus, carbamates and pyrethroids are found not to be free from adverse effects of toxicity to human, added up drug resistance by target parasites and high cost of drugs, paving the way for herbal alternatives.

Cinnamon oil has shown anti-parasitic activity against Trichomonas, Histomonas meleagridis and head lice in chicken. Allium cepa (onion) has proven pronounced anti-parasitic activity against many helminthes and protozoa such as, Trichinella spiralis and Leishmania sp. For preventing lice in ducks, drop the bulb in the bird’s drinking water and for chickens green leaves (spring onions) can be used to be picked by the birds.

Chopped seeds of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) are shown to be good for the control of tapeworms in laying hens.

• Sweet flag (Vasambu), Purasa thalai

Immunomodulatory:

Modulation of immune response to alleviate diseases has since long been of great interest to researchers. Indian medicinal plants are a rich source of substances which are claimed to induce immunity, thereby stimulating the non-specific immunomodulation, essentially granulocytes, macrophages, natural killer cells and complement functions

Ashwagandha ( Withania somnifera) is one of the well-known medicinal plants. Several bioactive compounds have been isolated from this plant, among which the important one is the steroidal lactone called Withanolides, having antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor and immunomodulatory activities

Neem (Azadirachta indica) is another immunomodulatory herb, that has shown marked influence on the haematological parameters in birds like haemoglobin, PCV and RBC indices.

Wild mint (Mentha longifolia) has been found to enhance immunity especially in broiler chicks in addition to the improvement in growth performance, feed conversion ratio and gross return. Echinacea sp., Glycyrrhiza glabra (Liquorice), Allium sativum (garlic) and Uncaria tomentosa (Cat’s claw) and they can improve the functions of lymphocytes, macrophages and NK cells a s well as increase phagocytosis and stimulate the interferon synthesis

Herbs for Other conditions:

1. Amla(Phyllanthus emblica) – ascorbic acid(vitamin C) – Immunostimulant.

– Antistress – 1 kg per tonne of poultry feed during summer

2. Betel leaves– Vetrilai (Piper betle) – Gout
3. Banana stem– Gout
4. Small onion : Growth promoter -1 kg per tonne of chick feed.
5. Fowl pox – Neem bark @ 1kg/1000 birds to be given after soaking in water, over night and Neem leaves as top dressing.

Turmeric and garlic used for different disease:

 Conclusion:

Herbs can be used as a good alternative therapeutic aid to costly allopathic medicines/chemotherapy and boosting immune functions in intoxicated conditions and can also effectively complement allopathic medicines in diseased state. Detailed scientific validation on these in poultry would be a worthful research in future. Ethnoveterinary practices using plant products are effective against some diseases. These plant products are locally available and free or very cheap. These will all together improve prospects of this traditional wealth towards modern medicines, drugs and health care products derived from their origin to improve the market potential and commercialization aspects at global level.

Please follow and like us: