Medicinal plants to treat poultry diseases

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.