No abstract

A total of 168 laying hens and 21 cocks of Matrouh local strain at 24 weeks of age (At 43.93 % egg production)was used in a completely randomized design among seven treatment groups with three replicates per treatment group (8 hens and 1 cock per replicate).Birds are biweekly injected, up to 36 weeks of age (12 weeks). The 1 st treatment group of birds were injected with saline solution 0.9% only and served as control, The birds in 2 nd and 3 rd treatment groups, were injected subcutaneously with 100 and 200 μg Gibberellic acid (GA3)/kg body weight (BW), respectively. The 4 th and 5 th treatment groups were injected with50 and 100 μg Royal Jelly (RJ)/kg BW, respectively. The 6 th treatment group was injected subcutaneously with 50μg GA3 plus25μg RJ/kg BW. The 7 th treatment group was injected subcutaneously with 100 μg GA3 plus 50μg RJ/kg BW. The same 7 treatment groups were used also, on 21 cocks in individual batteries to take semen quality. The obtained results revealed that, Injection with 100 , 200 μg GA3 or50 , 100 μg RJ /kg BW of Matrouh chicks improved significantly (P<0.05 and P<0.01) body weight changes (BWC),fertility eggs %, hatchability/total eggs % and chicks hatch weight (g), sperm-cell concentration (X 10 9 /ml) and sperm motility (%), while significantly (P<0.05) decreased each of dead spermatozoa (%), sperm abnormalities (%), and acrosomal damage (%) as compared with the control group. Layers injected by 100 , 200 μgGA3/kg body weight showed significantly (P≤0. 05 and P≤0. 01) improved feed conversion ratio (FCR), egg production (EP)% and egg mass (EM) compared with those the groups 170 EZZAT et al. 50 , 100 μg RJ /kg BW and control groups through the whole of the experimental period. Injection with 50, 100 μg of RJ /kg BW caused to increase significantly (P≤0. 01) in IgG and IgM and primary and secondary antibody titer against sheep red blood cells (SRBC's) in hens as compared with100, 200 μg of GA3and the control group. Injection 100 , 200 μg of GA3 /kg BW caused to increase significantly (P≤0. 05 and P≤0. 01) in concentration of estrogen in hens and testosterone of cocks, FSH and LH in hens and cocks when compared with those in control group. In conclusion, injection with 100, 200 μg GA3 /kg BW improved productive, reproductive and physiological performance of males and females Matrouh. Furthermore, the RJ-treated groups had significantly improved immune responses in hens and the quality of semen parameters in cocks under summer season conditions in Egypt.