Comparison between anticoccidial effect of granulated Artemisia siberi extract and pure Artemisinin in affected broilers

Increasing resistance against conventional anticoccidial drugs and the consequence of their residues has paid the attention toward more effective and safe compounds. Artemisia plant is a potential candidate that its anticoccidial effect has been previously discussed. This study aimed to produce a granule from the extract of Artemisia siberi and evaluate its anticcocidial effects compared to pure Atremisinin. Artemisinin was extracted from Artemisia by petroleum ether and then formulated into a wet granule. Experimental coccidiosis was induced in chicks (n=75) by oral administration of 250000 oocysts/chick. chicks were divided into 5 groups of three replicates each (n=15) and one uninfected group (n=15). The infected chicks were treated by oral administration (1mg/kg) of pure artemisinin and granule formulation with three different doses (1, 2.5 and 5mg/kg artemisinin) as feed additive. The treatment was conducted for 5 successive days towever. The fifth infected group and uninfected group did not receive any medication. At the end of treatment, fecal samples of each group were collected for 5 days and the OPG (oocyst per gram) was determined as anticoccidial index. The granule formulation of Artemisia and pure artemisinin significantly (p<0.001) decreased the OPG values in treated groups (30% in treated groups Vs 8% in control). However, there wasnt significant difference between granule formulation and pure artemisinin on OPG reduction (30.39% and 30.35%, respectively). This study showed that the Artemisia siberi granulated extract can be considered as a new effective and safe anticoccidial drug.