Therapeutic efficacy of Chinese herbal compound preparation on viral diseases in poultry.

[Objective] To develop a new antiviral agent with high and long efficacy, wide spectrum, low toxicity and low cost from traditional Chinese herbal medicine and their compound. [Method] The Quxie (i.e. eliminating pathogenic factors) drugs including Hedyotis diffusa and Lonicera japonica and Fuzheng (i.e. strengthening body resistance) drugs including Radix astragali and Glycyrrhiza uralensis were taken to form an antiviral herbal compound preparation. Taking the astragalus polysaccharide monomer as control, the experiment was constructed by using the agent to treat some naturally occurring viral diseases, including Newcastle disease (ND), infectious bursal disease (IBD), duck viral hepatitis (DVH), avian influenza (AI) H9 subtype and avian swollen head syndrome. [Result] The effective rates of the agent for treatment of the above-mentioned diseases were 87%, 87%, 69%, 100% and 100%, respectively, which were higher than that of astragalus polysaccharide monomer. The cure rates for these diseases were 33%, 37%, 13%, 69% and 75%, respectively, which were significantly higher than that of astragalus polysaccharide monomer (P 0.01). The rates of poor therapeutic efficacy were 15%, 21%, 24%, 6% and 7%, respectively, which were significantly lower than that of astragalus polysaccharide monomer (P 0.01). [Conclusion] The Chinese herbal compound preparation shows good therapeutic effects on some avian viral diseases, which can decrease mortality rate and improve production performance of poultry more greatly than astragalus polysaccharide monomer.