The Use Of Bitter Leaf As Anticoccidiosis

Bitter leaf (Vernonia amygdalina) is a shrub or small tree that grows throughout tropical Africa. It is a very important protective food and useful for the maintenance of health and treatment of various human and poultry infections. Coccidiosis spread faster in intensive system of rearing, it rarely affect extensive rearing system because of the birds' access to some herbs which bitter leaf is one of them. Adding bitter leaf extract to chicken's drinking water prevent and cure coccidiosis.

How To Prepare Bitter Leaf Extract
Just like any other leaves, there are two major ways of extracting bitter leaf juice depending on the quantity required. Bitter leaf can be extracted by hand squeezing or by the use of kitchen blender. The juice is expected to be as thick as wine.
To use manual method, gather some bitter leaves. Remove the leaves from the stem and rinse them in a bowl. Rinse properly but do not squeeze too hard. The quantity depends on the volume of juice required due to the number of chickens to be treated. Then squeeze the leaves with your hand until they are well blended and sieve the juice.
In other method, you can make use of kitchen blender. After rinsing the gathered leaves properly, put the leaves in a blender and add little volume of water just enough to blend the leaves easily. Blend until the leaves they cut into tiny particles and then use a cheese cloth to sieve the juice into a container. For you not to sieve the extract, you can blend the bitter leaf to paste. 

If the processes above are carefully followed, the bitter leaf extract should be as thick as wine.

Dosage
* For prevention, add 20 ml of bitter leaf extract per litre of clean water.
* For treatment, add 40ml of bitter leaf extract per litre of clean water.

Note that bitter leaf extract added to chicken water will not reduce water intake in harmful proportions. The birds will get used to it after short time.

You may also like to read more about:
* Intensive poultry System.
* The General Way Of Brooding Chicks.
* Organic Poultry Farming - The Use Of Spices.

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