Traditional Chinese veterinary medicine has the dual functions of nutrition and medicine, and has the advantages of being less resistant to drug resistance, no harmful residues, and less toxic and side effects. As feed additives, Chinese veterinary drugs have "five major" effects in the prevention and control of animal diseases, the development of green animal husbandry, and the guarantee of human health.
1. Growth-promoting effect
The spleen governs transportation and transformation, and the stomach governs acceptance. Only when the digestive function is strong can livestock and poultry carry out normal food intake, digestion and absorption. Chinese medicines such as hawthorn, angelica, cinnamon, etc. have the effect of invigorating the spleen, appetizing, promoting qi and digestion. The aromatic flavor of these drugs can not only correct the taste of the feed, but also improve the palatability of the feed. The secretion of livestock and poultry digestive juice is conducive to digestion, thereby promoting animal growth.
Chinese herbal medicine is rich in protein, carbohydrates, lipids, vitamins and essential minerals required for animal growth, so it plays an important role in maintaining nutritional balance, promoting growth performance, and improving physiological functions. For example, in addition to the three major nutrients, jujube trees also contain vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, iron, phosphorus and other components necessary for the growth of livestock.
2. Antimicrobial effect
A. Direct antiviral effect
It mainly blocks a certain link in the adsorption, penetration, replication and maturation of the virus reproduction process, so as to achieve the purpose of anti-virus infection. At present, there are two types of ingredients that have been clearly studied on the mechanism of Chinese herbal medicine against influenza virus: one is polyphenols, which have been proved to inhibit the synthesis of influenza virus protein and RNA, as well as the adsorption of influenza virus; the other is flavonoids The mechanism is to inhibit the activity of influenza virus sialidase and membrane fusion.
Representative drugs include Forsythia, Honeysuckle, Wild Chrysanthemum, Coptis, Daqingye, Houttuynia cordata, etc. During the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Vietnam in 2006, the hypericin extracted from the whole herb of Forsythia suspensa had a killing rate of more than 99% on the avian influenza virus, and had little effect on the egg production rate.
B. Indirect antiviral effect
Traditional Chinese medicine can not only directly kill viruses, but also stimulate the body's immune system to produce cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor, interferon, interleukin, etc.
G. Antibacterial effect
The in vitro antibacterial effects of Chinese herbal medicines have been extensively studied. For example, the in vitro inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Scutellaria baicalensis against Escherichia coli is 3.2 mg/mL, the MIC against Staphylococcus aureus is 3.2 mg/mL, the MIC against Streptococcus is 50 mg/mL, and the MIC against Pseudomonas aeruginosa is 100 mg /mL.
Current research shows that Chinese herbal medicine can play a bactericidal and bacteriostatic effect in vivo by destroying bacterial cell walls or inhibiting bacterial DNA synthesis. Not only that, Chinese herbal medicine also has a certain inhibitory effect on bacteria in animal products. Aksit and other studies have shown that the essential oil extracted from oregano leaves can inhibit special pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella in food, but the mechanism of action is ominous.
D. Anti-parasitic effect
Eimeria can cause coccidiosis in chickens and cause serious harm to the chicken industry. The main components of Qingshi and insecticidal cream are Coptis chinensis, Changshan, Shengdi, Astragalus, Hawthorn, Angelica, Atractylodes, Sophora Radix, Yinchen, Neem bark, etc., respectively from heat removal and dehumidification, insecticidal and egg suppression, cooling blood to stop bleeding, and nourishing qi and blood. The five aspects of Hexiaoshi and Jianwei have achieved outstanding results in the prevention and treatment of Eimeria.
3.Enhance immunity
A. Promote the development of immune organs
The immune organs of the body include thymus, bursa, spleen, lymph nodes, etc. Their conditions directly affect the immunity of the body. Studies have found that both astragalus polysaccharide and lentinan can promote the development of immune organs such as spleen and thymus.
B. Enhance the phagocytic ability of phagocytes
He Yuzhuo reported that after oral administration of solid feed Gegen decoction to dogs, the body's defense factor macrophage phagocytosis activity is enhanced at the same time as the body temperature rises, thereby improving immune function, so it can inhibit the proliferation of cold viruses and influenza viruses, and effectively improve colds. symptom.
C. Enhance the body's humoral immunity
Antibodies are the main factor in antiviral humoral immunity. He Fengqin et al studied the effect of different doses of compound allicin additives on the level of Newcastle disease antibody in laying hens. The results showed that compared with antibiotics, compound allicin could prolong the maintenance time of higher antibody titers in vivo after ND vaccine immunization (P<0.05).
In addition, studies have shown that Atractylodes, Epimedium, Lycium barbarum and Gynostemma can enhance the body's humoral immunity and increase serum IgG, IgA, and IgM levels.
D. Enhance the body's cellular immunity
Cellular immunity is an important immune response of the body mediated by T cells, which can resist infection by intracellular microorganisms such as viruses and bacteria proliferating in host cells. Some studies have pointed out that Astragalus, Codonopsis, Atractylodes, Epimedium, Ligustrum lucidum, Zhuquan, etc. can promote the formation rate of chicken lymphocyte rosette (ERFC) and the transformation rate of peripheral blood lymphocytes.
The compound preparation Zengmensan can not only promote the development of thymus, but also significantly increase the ANAE+ positive rate and CD4+ subgroup concentration of peripheral blood T lymphocytes in chicks, and has a partial antagonism to the immunosuppression of cyclophosphamide.
E. Induce interferon and enhance natural killer cell activity
Studies have shown that Chinese herbal medicine can also induce the production of interferon (IFN) and enhance the activity of natural killer cells (NKC) and other functions. The glycyrrhizin and glycyrrhetic acid preparations extracted from licorice by Japanese scholars can induce type II IFN and enhance cellular immune function. Significant enhancement.
4. Antioxidant effect
The antioxidant effect of plant extracts has always attracted much attention, such as thymol in musk, flavonoids in green tea and anthocyanins in fruits, all have certain antioxidant effects. Their mechanism of action is now believed to be that these substances can accelerate the scavenging of free radicals in the body and activate the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the body.
At present, Chinese herbal medicines with antioxidant effect have been added to the feed instead of the commonly used vitamin E to prevent the lipids in the feed from being oxidized. Ingestion of alfalfa polysaccharide can alleviate the increase of oxygen free radicals caused by high temperature, thereby increasing the growth performance of rabbits.
5. Other special functions
At present, many studies have pointed out that in addition to promoting growth, antibacterial, anti-oxidation, and enhancing immunity, Chinese herbal medicine can also improve the quality of livestock meat and maintain the stability of the internal environment of livestock.
Nie et al. studied that garlic and tea can increase phosphocreatinine, glutamate, glycine, intramuscular fat, etc. in livestock to improve meat aroma; Jamroz et al. studied that adding Chinese herbal medicine to feed can promote salivary gland and bile gland secretion, enhance enzymes The activity of saponin helps digestion, and can maintain the balance of normal intestinal flora to a certain extent; Francis et al. found that saponin can reduce the production of ammonia in the stomach, thereby improving the breeding environment from the source.
Traditional Chinese veterinary medicine is a precious heritage of veterinary pharmacy in my country and an important part of the cultural heritage of the Chinese nation, with a long history of several thousand years. For a long time, Chinese veterinary medicine has made important contributions to the prevention and control of animal diseases and the healthy development of animal husbandry. However, due to the complexity of Chinese medicinal materials and the limitations of detection technology, it is sometimes difficult to ensure their good therapeutic effects, and it is not possible to evaluate and control their quality well, which restricts the standardization and modernization of Chinese veterinary medicinal preparations.
