Anticoccidial effects of Aloe secundiflora crude leaf extract was tested in broiler chickens following oral infection with Eimeria tenella. Sixty 22-day-old birds were divided into six groups of ten birds each. Three treatment groups A, B, and C were fed with the extract (100, 250, and 500 mg/day, respectively) mixed in feed for 10 days, and three control groups: group D (drug control) administered 300 mg/l of sulfachloropyrazine sodium soluble powder in drinking water for 5 days, group E (infected/non-medicated positive control), and group F (uninfected/non-medicated negative control). Except for group F, all groups were orally inoculated with 75,000 sporulated oocysts of E. tenella. The effects of the extract on E. tenella infection were evaluated by severity of bloody diarrhea, body weight (BW) gain, oocyst output, and lesion score. No bird in the treated groups died of coccidiosis, and severity of bloody diarrhea was milder than in the positive control group. BW gains in the treated groups were significantly higher than in group E (p < 0.05). The lesion scores of the treated groups were significantly lower than that of group E. Oocyst output in groups A, B, and C were 11.23, 8.24, and 6.82 × 10, respectively. As compared with the negative control group (12.84 × 10), the reductions in oocyst production were 12.54, 35.83, and 46.88%, respectively. Oocyst output significantly reduced with an increase in Aloe dosage. The findings of this study suggest that Aloe secundiflora extract presents an alternative anticoccidial agent for the control of avian coccidiosis.

Aloe secundiflora Synonym: Aloe floramaculata, Aloe marsabitensis, Aloe engleri belongs to the family Asphodelaceae. Aloe leaf gel and Aloe exudates are the main components. The gel is derived from parenchytomous cells while exudates are derived from the inner epidermal layers. The gel consists of mainly polysaccharides while the exudates consists of a mixture of phenolic compounds mainly athrones, chromones and phenyl pyrones. Leaf components of Aloe have been credited for antibacterial, antifungal and antiviral and anthelmintic medicinal properties. The effectiveness of Aloe secundiflora extracts on the most prevalent nematode of chicken Ascaridia galli was conducted in vitro. The results of this study indicate that Hexane, Ethylacetate, Acetone, Methanol and chloroform extracts were found active in hindering the development of Ascaridia galli eggs to larval stage three (L 3 ), and this was dependent on the concentration of the crude extract. The lowest concentration of the various extracts (5 mg/ml) had an inhibition percent (IP), 75.52%, 79.60%, 87.21%, 86.13% and 43.6% respectively. The highest concentration of the extracts was (50 mg/ml), at this level the inhibition percent was found higher than in the lowest extracts concentrations i.e., 91.84%, 97.55%, 100%, 99.46% and 91.29% respectively. Aloe secundiflora extracts therefore have inhibitory effects on the Ascaridia galli larval development in vitro. Phytochemical tests on the extracts revealed the presence of various chemical compounds.