Using Astragalus to Boost Your Chicken’s Immune System

When you first begin your homesteading adventure, you typically begin with the gateway animal—chickens. Chickens are some of the most entertaining of livestock that you can have. They offer eggs each day (or almost each day), a cute egg song, and a beautiful scene across your landscape when, and if, they free range. There’s nothing quite as beautiful as chickens in their free ranging element.

But what happens when you start realizing that chickens can also be the most complex animal on the homestead, especially when it comes to their health?

Joel Salatin often says that he’s not in the business of treating animals because his animals typically don’t get sick. Through the efficiency of rotational grazing, including his chickens, it leaves little room for bacteria and diseases to take hold of his animals. We believe in this method as well.

But there can be times when you simply can’t help the situation. It can be due to genetics, compromised immune systems, or migrating birds that carry diseases….sometimes you might not be able to avoid a situation completely.

This is where the world of herbalism comes into play on the holistic homestead.

We use herbs as a way to prevent, not just treat. In fact, using herbs to prevent can be much more effective for livestock than the act of treating with herbs. Anyone can prevent illnesses with herbs, but it takes education and knowledge to treat livestock properly with herbs. You can learn about that in my new book, The Homesteader’s Herbal Companion. 

Thankfully, through good genetics and herbal prevention, we haven’t had a sick chicken on this homestead in years. We believe this is due to good immune system and immune stimulating herbs. The chicken’s immune system is much like any other immune system, and therefore, we confidently know that it can be stimulated just like a human’s immune system.

1. At an appropriate concentration (231.25μg/mL) APS (astragalus root) can drastically reduce the proliferation of H9N2 virus (avian influenza).
2. APS enhanced the proliferation of CEF cells when used at concentrations > 9.766μg/mL. The exception, the simultaneous addition of APS and virus at APS concentrations of 2,500μg/mL and 1,250μg/mL.
3. APS effectively increases the expression of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, LITAF and IL-12, promotes cell growth, and enhances anti-H9N2 activity.
4. APS promoted a rapid humoral response following H9N2 vaccine immunization or H9N2 AIV infection.
5. The appropriate dose of APS (5 and 10mg/kg) significantly enhanced the specific immune response in chickens, and improved vaccine effectiveness; promoting an earlier peak that increased rapidly and was sustained for a longer period of time.
6. The CD4+, CD8+ T lymphocyte content and CD4+/CD8+ values for all the APS treatment groups were higher than those for the untreated (no APS) control group. The values for the 5 and 20mg/kg APS dose groups were significantly higher than the control group, which indicated that the appropriate dose of polysaccharide can promote the production of peripheral CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes in chickens, thereby enhancing cellular immunity.
7. APS inhibited H9N2 both in vitro and in vivo.

The precise mechanisms responsible for the response to APS require further examination. On the whole, APS has the potential to diminish disease progression in H9N2 infected chickens, and its use could provide alternative strategies for the control of H9N2 AIV infection. [NCBI]

I know, it’s a lot of information, but I think for those of you who aren’t proficient in scientific talk, you can read enough in between the lines to know that astragalus root was a win. A major win.While the study concludes that more trials need to be run, it was very confident in the findings that astragalus has the potential to diminish disease progression in avian influenza infected chickens, and could provide alternative strategies for the control of avian influenza as a whole.The most surprising part, however, is that this clinical trial was done in 2013. And here we are in 2017 (at the writing of this blog), and we’ve yet to hear anything about this in the United States. Unless, of course, you’re a researching and studying herbalist like myself.All we’ve heard are the detrimental effects of avian flu on our chickens—in backyards, in poultry warehouses, on farms large and small. But we’ve not been informed that there can be a better way. That avian flu can be beat.My friends, that starts with you, and me, and all of the mini, full time, and hardcore farmers and homesteaders across the globe.

 

Make an Astragalus Tincture

Leave your mason jar in a temperature controlled area, like a cabinet or pantry, out of direct sunlight. Shake once or twice each day to keep the tincture mixed and the herbs saturated.

Your tincture will be ready after 4-6 weeks, depending on the time period you wish to allow it to extract.

When your tincture is ready, strain the herbs out, bottle the remaining liquid into a brown glass eyedropper bottle, and store it in your medicine cabinet (dark place) or refrigerator for 18-24 months or more. If kept in your fridge, it can last much longer. It all depends on the environment around you. Some tinctures can last 5+ years in a medicine cabinet.

Administer 2-3 drops directly into the bird’s mouth every 6-12 hours once symptoms occur. Or add 3-5 drops to chicken waterer every few days to help boost the immune system as a preventative.

You can read why I use this method of making a tincture instead of the folk method here.

 

Offer Astragalus as a Decoction

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