Clinic Trial Of Huangqi Granules On The Improvement Of Immune Function And Growth Performance In Chickens And Swine

Bei Qi Wu Jia tablet is a commercially available herbal medicine used in humans. Aveterinary enterprise made the tablet into granules and entrusted to do clinical trial.The experiment was carried out to study the effect of Chinese herbal medicineHuangqi Granules (huangqi) on the improvement of immune function and growthperformance in chickens and swine. One hundred and eighty healthy chickens of oneday age were fed conventionally to30days old and then randomly divided into sixgroups. Animals in groups A~D were drug treated groups, E was the APS group and Fwas blank control group. Birds in groups A~D were given Huangqi Granules indrinking water for7days with the following levels:(0.5g/L)(1g/L)(2g/L)(4g/L).Group E drunk with APS (100mg/L),3days before immunization with the Lasotavaccine. Serum samples were collected at14,21,28days of age with seven chickensfrom each group randomly, to determinate the antibody level of ND, IFN-γ, IL-4.The weights of whole body, spleen and bursa of Fabricius were weighed for thecalculation of immune organ index and both the spleen and bursa of Fabricius tissueswere sampled the same days. At the age of20,26days, phagocytosis activity ofmacrophages were determined with the experiment of carbon particles clearance. Onehundred healthy piglets were fed conventionally to60days of age and randomlydivided into five groups. Animals in groups A~C were drug groups, D was the APSgroup and E was blank control group. The drug groups were fed with HuangqiGranules for a week at high (8g/kg), middle (4g/kg), low (2g/kg) dosages. Group Ewas fed with APS (200mg/kg),3days before immunization with the swine plaguevaccine. At the age of34and60days weighted every group to calculate the F/G; at34,48,60days serum was collected to determinate the antibody level of CSF. The resultsindicated that the middle，high dose of Huangqi Granules can significantly improvethe antibody titer of CSF (P <0.01) in the blood, and also the growth performance (P<0.05), the middle dose of Huangqi Granules can significantly improve the antibodytiter of ND, immune organs index (P <0.01), increase the phagocytosis activity ofmacrophage(P<0.01), increase IFN-γ content, reduce the IL-4content, promote thedevelopment of the immune organs. The low drug group was also helpful to theanimals compared to the blank control group. The results show that Huangqi Granulescan effectively improve immune function and growth performance in chickens andswine.