Studies on the antiviral activity of some herbal plants extract against isolated duck hepatitis virus in infected ducklings.

Keywords Duck hepatitis virus (DHV) is a fatal, rapid spreading viral infection of young ducklings that causes hepatitis and has a high mortality rate if not managed. In the present work, fifteen previously identifiedDHAV3 isolates using conventional RT-PCR. RT-PCR were taken from 29 positive isolates and cultured on ECE. All isolates were identified using conventional RT-PCR. RT-PCR was used for detection and subtyping of DHAV using specific pairs of primers to amplify the UTR and VP1 gene respectively. These isolates were used in experimental infection. The efficacy of three herbal substances included Ment, Neem and Curcumin against DHAV3 infection was evaluated in ten-day-old Pekin ducklings inoculated i/m with 10 6 EID 50 /0.1ml of DHAV3.Tissues of liver and spleen of inoculated ducklings were examined histopathologicaly. Cloacal swabs were tested using Real Time-PCR to detect virus shedding. The results concluded that the Ment treated group showed the most effective virus reduction followed by Neem treated group then the curcumin treated group.