The effect of propolis feed supplementation on hygiene and performance

Abstract

Propolis is a natural substance produced by worker bees from trees and leaf buds. The study aimed to evaluate the effect of two concentrations (200, 400 mg/kg diet) of propolis on some performance traits and hygienic parameters of broiler chickens body weight, feed conversion, feed consumption, during an eight weeks experiment, weights of internal organs, and dressing percentage also recorded. The results showed that using propolis at 400 mg/kg in the diet lead to significant increase (P<0.05) in eighth-week body weight (2306.27) g, feed consumption especially in the fourth week, maximum daily growth rate (55.52) gm was obtained from the treatment of 400 mg/kg in the seventh week period. Also propolis lead to improve feed conversion efficiency in the second, third and fourth week of age for the broilers fed diet with 400 mg/kg (1.35, 1.59, 1.95), respectively. Average of proportional weights for each of the liver, heart, thighs, and dressing percentage (74.0%) were improved among birds of this treatment, too.