1.
Anticoccidial Activity Of Aloe Vera (Qawar Gandal) In Broiler
by Hafiz Atif Munir (2005-VA-102) | Dr. Muhammad Lateef | Dr. Haroon Akber | Dr. Jawad Nazir.
Material type: ; Literary form:
not fiction
Publisher: 2014Dissertation note: There are various species of Eimeria that cause coccidiosis. This disease is considered to be one of the most significant and prevalent diseases across the world. This disease reduces the production and causes high morbidity and death rates, on the other hand for controlling this eimeriosis, one has to adopt preventive therapy in the form of anticoccidial drugs in combination with occurrence of natural immunity in birds. Coccidia cause infection in intestine and multiply in gut and belong to protozoan parasites. These protozoan coccidian cause chicken Eimeriosis which is considered one of the most significant diseases, that cause severe economic losses across the world. For poultry control houses, coccidiosis is considered one of the most common (Hamidinejat et al., 2010).
As oocysts of coccidia are very unique so they spread from one poultry farm to another poultry farm and for dissemination of this protozoan, parasitic disease management plays a pivotal role. Now it’s very hard to keep chickens safe from these parasitic protozoa particularly in the control poultry houses where high production is required. In poultry house litter, oocycts multiply readily. But there are some factors which affect the number of these protozoa like bacteria or some environmental factors like liberation of Ammonia gases and under these factors, Eimeria start to diminish after three weeks (Williams, 1995).
Caecal and intestinal forms are the two important forms of avian coccidiosis. Diarrhoea and excessive caecal haemorrhages are the main symptoms of caecal coccidiosis and its causative agent is Eimeria tenella (Gardinar 1955). In prevention, surveillance and control of coccidiosis specific diagnosis plays a pivotal role. Eimeria oocysts from the faeces of infected chickens have been detected or enumerated by conventional methods and pathological lesions resulted by Eimeria infection and oocyst structure can also be determined by employing traditional methods (Long and Joyner 1984). But because of the involvement of multiple species of Eimeria in coccidial infection these approaches cannot be realistic as there can be overlapping among various sizes of oocysts (Long and Joyner 1984).
There are six species of Eimeria which cause great economic loss in chickens and also these species are highly host specific. High mortality rate and morbidity rate due to bloody enteritis and production losses are reasons of great economic. Despite management now a days anticoccidial drugs have been used in chicken feed to minimize the effect of this disease. E. tenella, E. necatrix, E acervulina, E. maxima, E. brunetti , E. mitis and E. praecox are the seven species of Eimeria which are considered as main causative agents of coccidiosis in chicken (Arabkhazaeli et al. 2011).
However, control of coccidiosis can be achieved by producing species-specific natural immunity along with anticoccidial drugs (Shirley et al. 2004), but it’s also evident from the fact that drug resistance has been increasing due to excessive use of anticoccidial drugs (Williams 1998). Pathological lesions, host and protozoan characteristics are very important for diagnosis of coccidiosis. But one cannot identify the Eimeria species accurately as analysis of these characteristics requires high expertise.
Good management plays key role in controlling coccidiosis which includes proper ventilation, dry litter, drinkers and feeders in good clean condition and appropriate density of stock (Jordan 1995, Gross 1985). Size and morphology of parasite at various stages of life cycle plays an important role in identification of Eimeria and site of enteric pathological lesions. In complex infection it’s very hard to identify the species showing same features (Long and Reid 1982).
The increasing resistance of avian coccidiosis to anti-coccidial drugs currently used by poultry industry together with the requirement for drug and the production systems which should be antibiotic free, it’s now very necessary to go for the new and advanced methods to prevent from this disease. Therefore, scientists started to work on medicinal use of herbal products to control this eimeriosis. In past for treatment of various human and poultry ailments the natural herbal products have been effectively used several times. Because of the anticoccidial nature and antibacterial effect, Aloe vera could be served as a valuable alternative for coccidiostats as a medicinal plant. Previously aloe gel has been used for multipurpose like as an antibiotic, for healing of wounds, for anti-inflammatory effects, for anti Eimerial response and as an anti-ulcer agent. It was also reported that in broilers it increases immunity by enhancing the number of microvilli (Jinag et al., 2005). In Asia Aloe gel is considered one of the most common and easily available country medicines to get effective deliberate results. Therefore, the current study planned to cope coccidial diseases in broilers by serving Aloe vera as an effective weapon.
The present study therefore planned to discover the anti-coccidial effects of Aloe vera in broilers by using its powdered form, aqueous and methanol extracts.
Availability: Items available for loan: UVAS Library [Call number: 2231-T] (1).
2.
Isolation Of Surface Antigen 1 Gene Of Toxoplasma Gondii And Its Cloning In The Expression Plasmid
by Farooq Riaz (2008-VA-231) | Dr. Muhammad Imran Rashid | Prof. Dr. Kamran Ashraf | Dr. Jawad Nazir.
Material type: ; Literary form:
not fiction
Publisher: 2015Dissertation note: Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular protozoan parasite which comes under the classification of phylum Apicomplexa, subclass Coccidiasina (Cornelissen et al. 1984). Toxoplasmosis is one of the more common parasitic zoonoses world-wide caused by Toxoplasma gondii which is a facultatively heteroxenous, polyxenous protozoon that has developed several potential routes of transmission within and between different host species (Tenter et al. 2000). It is the most important source of toxoplasmosis in humans and animals, with cat as definite host and warm-blooded animals as intermediate host (Frenkel et al. 1970). It was first described by Nicolle, Manceaux and Splendore in 1908 from rodents Ctenodactylus gondii (Black and Boothroyd 2000).
Toxoplasmosis is a worldwide parasitic disease and it is estimated that about one-third total population of the world is seropositive for Toxoplasma gondii (Tenter et al. 2000). Prevalence of infection varies between countries, geographical areas and ethnic groups living within a specific region. In Humans, infection rates range from 50% to 83% in Brazil (Tenter et al. 2000; Dubey et al. 2012). Seropositivity of Toxoplasma gondii in China is about 8% with continuously increase while in USA its 10-15%, 50-70% in France and 20% in UK (Dubey and Jones 2008; Zhou et al. 2008; Jones et al. 2009). Prevalence of toxoplasmosis is higher in males (79%) as compared to females (63.4%) and the age dependent sero-prevalence reaches >92% in age group of 40 to 50 (Coêlho et al. 2003).
Transmission occurs through the ingestion of contaminated vegetable /water with oocysts, as well as the ingestion of contaminated raw/undercooked meat with tissue cysts (Gajadhar et al. 2006). Transmission may also occurs by ingestion of sporulated oocysts, or bradyzoites within cysts present in the tissues of numerous food animals (Esteban-Redondo et al. 1999). In humans, transmission of Toxoplasma gondii happens mainly by eating raw or undercooked contaminated meat, raw cow’s milk and birds eggs, swallowing oocysts dis-charged in feces of infected cats, inoculation of trophozoites through the skin, or by inhalation (Wallace 1971; Wallace 1973; Bannister 1982).
In humans, mostly infections (congenitally or post-natally acquired) are asymptomatic. Congenital infection occurs only when a woman becomes infected during pregnancy. Congenital infections acquired during the first trimester are more severe than those acquired in the second and third trimester (Desmonts and Couvreur 1974). The main clinical signs associated with toxoplasmosis are anorexia, weight loss, lethargy, dyspnea, ocular signs, pyrexia, vomiting and diarrhea, jaundice, myositis, encephalitis and abortion. Humans become infected when they ingest the toxoplasma at infective stages (oocysts and tissue cysts) found in some cat feces and in raw meats.
In addition to being hazardous to livestock animals, the T. gondii infection is also important due to its zoonotic implications (Jittapalapong et al. 2005). Congenital abnormalities in humans, such as microcephaly, hydrocephaly, chorioretinitis, convulsion, cerebral calcification, epilepsy, blindness, deafness, and mental retardation may occur if the mother acquires infection during pregnancy (Jones et al. 2003). In addition to congenital anomalies, T. gondii also causes severe neuropathologic infections in immuno-compromised hosts, such as AIDS and cancer patients receiving chemotherapy (Del Valle and Piña-Oviedo 2005).
Seroprevalence studies of T. gondii among domestic animals in South-Western Pakistan has indicated considerable prevalence (25% in cattle, 2.5% sheep) (Zaki 1995) and suggesting potential transmission to the human community. Small scale study in urban area of Rahim Yar Khan (Punjab), Pakistan has revealed that the overall prevalence of toxoplasmosis in food animals is 19% (Ramzan et al. 2009). Another study has already been published that untreated patients with leprosy in Pakistan have shown significant seroprevalence (29.6%) of antibodies against T. gondii (Hussain et al. 1992).
Vaccine against toxoplasmosis is not available yet with one exception (“Toxovax” for sheep). Vaccine against T. gondii in animals used for human consumption may block the possible transmission to humans (Bhopale 2003). SAG1, among one of the major antigenic components of Toxoplasma gondii is a major surface antigen identified on the surface membrane of this parasite using a monoclonal antibody (Handman et al. 1980). SAG1 is an important surface antigen, expressed by tachyzoite form of T. gondii and is a putative candidate for vaccine and diagnostic against toxoplasmosis (Sharma et al. 1983; Godard et al. 1990). Immunization with SAG1 adjuvanted with saponin Quil A or incorporated in lysosomes provided total protection after challenge (Bülow and Boothroyd 1991; Khan et al. 1991). SAG1 is single copy gene with no introns (Burg et al. 1988), regulates both humoral as well as cellular Th1 immune responses (Liu et al. 2008) and is powerful candidate for vaccine against toxoplasmosis. SAG1 is a potent candidate of diagnostics for detection of serum antibodies against toxoplasmosis in Man and animals (Abu-Zeid 2002).
Availability: Items available for loan: UVAS Library [Call number: 2258-T] (1).
