grapefruit seed extract (gse)

pigeonpete · April 16, 2006

Hi there can any one give me any more info on the use of this product on pigeons? and what quantities? a local fancier says he use this product in the prevention of most things and has never had any ailments in his lofts for years

thanks in advance

April 16, 2006

Longish article. Gives good background and advises on quantities - these depend on strength of GSE you get.

Grapefruit seed extract the magic bullet

Imagine that you are a nice juicy grapefruit hanging on a tree in the jungle. You want to reproduce more of your kind. You want to spread grapefruit trees all over the jungle, but how? You’ve got a nice clump of seeds inside you but you need to get them out into the jungle and planted. Now what you want is for some hungry bird or monkey to come along and pick you and eat you then run or fly off. The tough seeds that were hidden inside your juicy exterior will pass through the bird or monkey unharmed. They will be deposited somewhere on the jungle floor to grow into another fine grapefruit tree. Good plan, but there is one problem to being a nice fat juicy grapefruit. You want the bird or monkey to eat you but you don’t want bacteria or fungus to eat you and you especially don’t want your precious seeds to be attacked by bacteria and fungus, as they are the only way you are going to get to reproduce. So how are you going to stop this happening? Well inside your tough yellow skin and within your juicy interior and concentrated inside your seeds you have evolved chemicals that are poisonous to bugs and fungi and yet completely harmless to birds and monkeys. It’s a way of selecting who you get to be eaten by. Nature is very clever.

So what’s this got to do with pigeons?

Well racing pigeons are birds that tend to pick up all sorts of bugs and infections. Salmonella, coccidiosis and yeast for example, but to race pigeons successfully they need to be healthy. We have to keep them germ and fungus free to get the best out of them. The trouble with modern day medications is that they can make the pigeon as sick as the infections that we are trying to eradicate. What we want is something that will kill the germs and yeasts that put the pigeon off form without harming the pigeon.

Ah ha! We’re all idiots. Nature has given us exactly what we want, it was sitting right under our noses and yet people are only just beginning to realise it. If you followed the story that I told above, you will see that nature has already provided exactly what we want. Grapefruit seed extract. This will kill the bugs that affect our pigeons and yet remain perfectly safe to the pigeons.

No it can’t be that simple can it? This is too good to be true. Grapefruit seed extract the answer to all our problems? Well let’s see. Luckily for us scientists have already tested it against all sorts of ailments. Grapefruit Seed Extract, according to published sources, is effective against more than 800 bacterial and viral organisms, 100 strains of fungus, and a large number of single-cell and multi-celled parasites. It is a powerful antiviral and antibacterial agent, effective against Gram(+) and Gram(-) bacteria, including Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Salmonella, Escherichia. coli, Klebsiella shigella, Dysentaria, Chlamydia, Helicobactor, Vibrio cholerae, Lysteria, Candida albicans, Aspergillus and Herpes. It is also an effective antimycotic and antiprotozoal agent, killing Giardia and Entamoeba including their cysts. Wow what a list!

Yeasts are also killed by grapefruit seed extract. These are increasingly becoming a problem to pigeons. Many vet reports are listing yeast infection as a likely cause of the pigeon ailments reported. The reason is that the major cause of yeast overgrowth is overuse of antibiotics, vaccinations, nutritional deficiency, exposure to toxins, viruses and bacteria. Also stress and a lowered immune system can cause an outbreak of yeast infestation. All these triggers are well known to the pigeon fancier.

Yeasts normally grow in the intestines without causing any damage but if defenses are poor the yeast fungus can overgrow throughout the intestine and penetrate into inner organs such as lungs, kidneys or heart. Skin and mucus membranes can also be attacked. The yeast will travel throughout the bloodstream releasing its toxins to many parts of the body. Grapefruit seed extract will prevent this happening.

So with such a powerful broad spectrum of activity how do we know that grapefruit seed extract is really safe. Well or a start it’s recommended for use in humans. For human use, the dose is 5 drops of extract in a cup of water or juice, 3 times a day. Just to emphasize how safe it is humans would have to consume 4,000 times the recommended dose before it would have any harmful effects. This means that a typical 60 kilogram man would have to consume 300 grams per day. It is just as safe for pigeons.

In view of its safety it is also used in the agricultural industry where the recommended dose is 50-250 ppm, which is about 2 drops in one cup of water. In animal feed as an antiparasitic and mould inhibitor 50ppm is used. For disinfection of fish or poultry, or as a preservative for fish and poultry 100ppm is used. As a water purifier then 50ppm is used. It is Ideal for sterilising pigeon drinkers.

Still not convinced? Well it is recognised as safe under the US code of Federal regulations number 21 CFR 182.20, being safe in humans and animals and also it does not harm the environment. Grapefruit seed extract has even been tested by surgeons as a surgical scrub, and it was found to be more effective than alcohol or soap. It was used at 100ppm as a presurgical scrub and was 100% effective, whereas soap was only 98% effective, and alcohol was only 72% effective.

Furthermore, being a natural product, it is relatively cheap. One large bottle will last you ages. Pure Grapefruit seed extract has a shelf life of 6 years, as it is extremely stable. One batch was still found to work after 15 years. It just has to be kept in a cool dry place.

But hold on I hear you all say. It kills bacteria does that mean all bacteria? The answer is no. It doesn’t kill the friendly bacteria that are needed by the pigeon to keep its digestive system working. How can that be? This really is getting too good to be true. Well let’s go back to the jungle. The grapefruit wants the birds and monkeys to eat the grapefruit so that its seeds will be scattered all over the place. There would be no point in evolving chemicals that kill gut friendly bacteria as this would make the birds and monkeys ill and they wouldn’t go near the grapefruit ever again. Years of evolution, have evolved chemicals that are selective only against the bad pathogenic bacteria and fungi. This is a major additional benefit because if the birds and animals feel better after eating grapefruit there is even more incentive to take the fruit. Friendly bacteria such as Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidus and the other 18 or so friendly bacteria are left unscathed by Grapefruit seed extract.

Compare this to antibiotics. These are synthetic chemicals that simply kill everything. This is especially true for the broad-spectrum antibiotics like Baytril. They even kill the friendly bacteria that the pigeon needs to keep healthy. No wonder pigeons look a bit off when on antibiotics. This is why after a course of antibiotics you have to heavily supplement the pigeons diet with electrolytes and probiotics to help replace all the gut fauna and flora that has been decimated.

Furthermore antibiotics only work for a while, after which more virulent antibiotic resistant bacteria can spring up. With grapefruit seed extract there is no evidence of any pathogenic micro-organism ever gaining resistance. This is due to the way it works. It disrupts the pathogenic organisms cell membrane, just like bursting a balloon full of water. The bugs can’t build up a resistance to this.

Studies have been undertaken that have compared Grapefruit seed extract to 30 effective antibiotics and 18 proven fungicides, Grapefruit seed extract was proven to perform as well as any of the agents tested. Furthermore it did its job without exhibiting the harmful side effects usually associated with antibiotic use.

Recently it has also been compared to a whole range of other antibacterial agents such as iodine, chlorox, bleach, tea tree oil and colloidal silver for it’s ability to kill Candida, Salmonella, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus, Escherichia, and it was up to 100 times as effective. It was also found more effective against Herpes simplex virus type 1 and influenza virus type A2. Because of these findings, Grapefruit seed extract, has been endorsed, by the U.S Federal Drug Agency and the Pasteur Institute in France.

So why is it so effective and yet so powerful? Well the reason is that it does not rely only one single chemical to do the job. The extract contains a whole myriad of antifungal and antibacterial agents. Compounds such as quaternary compounds converted from the bioflavonoids, naringin, isosacuranetin, neohesperidin, hesperidin, dihydrocampherol glycoside, poncirin, quercetin glycoside, campherol glycoside, apigenin, rutinoside, and this is just the few that have been discovered so far. The other reason that these compounds have such a strong growth-inhibiting effect on bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses is because they all work together, each enhancing the effect of the other.

The reason that nature has evolved such a complex mixture of antibacterial agents is that it prevents the bugs developing resistance. Bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotic because you are only using one chemical compound at a time. With Grapefruit seed extract there are many chemicals, so even if bacteria build up resistance to one there are still many others to carry on and do the job.

Historically Grapefruit seed extract was originally developed by the German physicist and immunologist Jocab Harish, as an antiparasitic. Dr Harish convinced researchers at the U.S. Dept of Agriculture to test it against other agents and to their surprise they confirmed that it was effective in inhibiting viral strains in cattle and pigs such as foot and mouth, African swine fever and swine vesicular disease.

Interestingly in 1984 grapefruit seed extract was approved by the U.S.D.A for use in its Avian Flu Eradication program. So grapefruit seed extract could be the answer to the avian flu outbreak that is ravaging the continent at the moment preventing pigeon racing in Holland.

More importantly it could be the answer to eradicating the dreaded youngbird sickness in pigeons especially as it has the potential to kill the adenovirus that starts youngbird sickness and also to kill the opportunistic salmonella and yeast that cause problems later.

So where can you get some of this Grapefruit seed extract. Well lucky for us John Norban has managed to get hold of some. He has called it the ‘Good Bug Mate’ and it is available in 30ml bottles for £4.95 and 100ml bottles at £12.95 postage free. When you think that it is all you need to combat all the pathogens that pigeons are likely to pick up it’s a bargain. The dose regime that’s recommended is small, only 6 drops per litre during the race season. A bottle will last much longer than most other medications. It has a very long shelf life. Also you will no longer need expensive diagnostic veterinary bills as it has such a broad spectrum of activity. By not having wait, to first to identify what your pigeons have contracted, you can save time. It does not matter what infections your pigeons have picked up it is highly likely that Grapefruit seed extract will deal with them all.

The proper dosage will depend on where you obtained your grapefruit seed extract from. It is often diluted with glycerin. This is so that the active chemicals in the extract will stay in solution and to make the extract completely miscible with water. Most grapefruit seed extracts are diluted by about 50% in glycerin. So for a typical 50% grapefruit seed extract you need to work to about 100ppm for it to be effective against most of the common infections found in pigeons. 100 ppm is about 3 drops of extract in 1 pint (0.5 litre) which is equivalent to about a 5ml teaspoon in 1 gallon. The dosing regime depends will change depending on the circumstances. So for youngbirds it is best to only give it for only two days when they return from a race. The reason is that this is when they are most vulnerable to infection as they have been in a race pannier with other birds and they have been stressed. It is better not to dose beyond this as you really want the youngbirds to build up their own natural immunity. However if you have birds that have succumbed to an infection such as youngbird sickness it is better to dose it everyday or at least 1 week or more until the infection has been resolved. For older birds it can dosed more liberally than just on return from the race point. It is particularly useful if your birds drink from gutters or pick around the garden after being liberated . Grapefruit seed extract can then be given daily throughout the whole year.

frank-123 · April 16, 2006

thats a great answer bruno

thanks for the info

NANCYVIEWLOFTS · April 17, 2006

can only say that we have used it for the last 2 seasons and had no yb sickness

pigeonpete · April 17, 2006

Thanks for that bruno you made me late for work now reading all that good info ;D ;D thanks once again will give it a go,any idea how to contact norban?

April 17, 2006

Thanks for that bruno you made me late for work now reading all that good info ;D ;D thanks once again will give it a go,any idea how to contact norban?

Doesn't appear to be on-line.

address: 253 North Road, Hull. HU4 6LA

Tel: 01482 561505

(taken from advert page 97, BHW 24th March)