EFFECT OF DIETARY PROPOLIS SUPPLEMENTATION ON IMMUNOCOMPETENCE PARAMETERS OF COBB BROILER CHICKS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Poultry Nutrition, Animal Production. Institute, Agriculture. Research Center.

2 Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Egypt

Abstract

This experiment was carried out at El-Takamoly Poultry Project. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of dietary propolis supplementation on immune response of broiler chicks. A total number of 200 unsexed one day-old Cobb broiler chicks were used in this experiment. They were divided into five groups, with four replicates of ten chicks each. Chicks were fed a starter diet without propolis supplementation during the first 6 days of age.  At the 7th day, birds were fed diets containing different levels of propolis (0, 200, 400, 600 and 800 mg/kg) till the end of 6th weeks of age. Ethanolic extract of propolis was added to mixed diets. The result revealed that the mortality rate was within the normal range and not related to treatments studied.. Concerning to Cell-mediated immunity the chicks fed diet added 400, 600 and 800 mg propolis/kg diet had significantly highr response to PHA-P injection compared to control-fed group. The Heterophils / lymphocytes ratio (H/L) decreased with increased the level of dietary propolis in the diets. Generally, it can be concluded that chicks fed diet added 600 and 800 mg propolis/kg diet had significantly improvement in   immune response and some blood parameters.

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