Bird flu – more formally known as avian flu – isn’t a new disease, although it’s been making the news as the price of eggs skyrocket and researchers are concerned that new mutations may make mammal-to-mammal transmission more likely.
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Two reports – both documented by the same researchers and published in the peer-reviewed Poultry Science – look at using neem to treat chickens in highly controlled settings. The researchers represent veterinary and microbiology professors in universities across the Middle East. Avian flu became widespread there as early as 2006, and has caused 359 human infections and 120 deaths in Egypt alone.
The first report, published in November 2023, evaluated the use of neem in combination with a series of commercially available poultry vaccines. Across the board — six vaccines in all – chickens treated with both the vaccine and neem were significantly less likely to show severe signs of illness.
Researchers attributed that success to neem’s immunostimulant properties, reporting that using neem with any of the six vaccines “induces a higher immune response than other commercial vaccines.”
The second report follows up on the first, using neem alone as a treatment but also testing it against avian chlamydiosis, another significant threat to the poultry industry. Twenty-one days after the birds were infected, they were divided into three subgroups: one was not treated (positive control), one was treated with oxytetracycline, and one was treated with an 8% neem solution.
Birds treated with neem showed weight gains in the third and fourth week as well as a reduction in replication of both viruses, even compared to those treated with an antibiotic. Those birds also gained weight, an important consideration for broiler chickens.
Researchers unequivocally recommended the oral supplementation of neem leaf extract to prevent the diseases, minimize their spread, and increase weights in poultry. That’s unusual because nearly every scientist researching neem calls for further study before making such a broad recommendation.
Another important point to consider is that neem trees are naturalized across most of the Middle East, so feeding a water-based neem extract to chickens – particularly backyard poultry where the disease is most likely to be an issue – is an easy and inexpensive method to control avian flu and increase the weight of a staple crop in that region.