Effect of Some Natural Feed Additives to Substitute Antibiotic as Growth Promoters on Growth Performance, Carcass Characteristics and Economic Efficiency of Broiler Chicks: 2- Bee-Pollen

Abstract

total number of 150 unsexed 1 day old Cobb broiler chicks up to 35 days of age were randomly divided to 5 dietary treatments with 3 replicate cages per treatment and 10 chicks per cage, assigning experimental until to investigate the effect of either Antibiotic as growth promoter (colistinsulphate) or bee-pollen (natural, growth promoter) on performance, carcass characteristics, carcass parts and economical evaluation in broiler chickens. dietary treatments were: Control, basal diet without supplementation.Basal diet supplemented with 100g colistensulphate/ton, T1and T2-4, basal diet supplemented with 500, 1000 and 2000g/ton bee-pollen, respectively. The results indicated that: Supplementation of colistinsulphate (100g/ton, T1) or bee-pollen (2000g/ton, T4) recorded significant (P<0.05) higher body weight gain (being the same figure 12%, respectively), than the control group. Supplementation of colistinsulphate or bee-pollen recorded insignificant differences in feed intake, feed conversion ratio or calories and protein conversion ratio compared with that fed control diet, but numerically (T1 and T4) represented the best feed conversion (being, 1.67 and 1.65, respectively) compared with that fed control diet (1.83). Carcass characteristics % and carcass parts % showed insignificant figures (except, gizzard, heart, giblets, abdominal fat and wing %) when chicks fed different dietary treatments. Supplementation of colistinsulphate (T1) or bee-pollen (T2-4) recorded significant higher performance index being (98.62 to 105.9) compared with that fed control diet (86.21). Concerning economic evaluation, the best economical efficiency values were demonstrated when broiler fed 100g/ton (colistinsulphate) or 500 g/ton (bee-pollen) and the values were 65.3 and 40.8% more, respectively when compared with that of broiler chicks fed control diet. It could be concluded that supplementation basal diet with bee-pollen improved productive performance and enhanced economic efficiency of Cobb broiler chicks.