Effect of Using Bee Propolis as Natural Supplement on Productive and Physiological Performance of Japanese Quail

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of supplementing bee propolis as a growth promoter and antioxidant material on laying performance, egg quality traits, blood parameters, antioxidant status during laying period of quails. A total number of 72 laying quails, 15-wks-old were randomly divided into four groups, 18 birds each, and each treatment replicated three times in a completely randomized design. The birds were selected on basis of more than 70 % egg production rate after two-week of observation period. Dietary treatments were as follows: control (without supplementation), bee propolis at levels of 250 and 500 mg/kg diet and ascorbic acid at level 250 mg/kg diet (as a positive control). Results showed that quails fed diets supplemented with different levels of propolis or ascorbic acid had similar body weight change, egg laying rate, egg weight and egg mass as compared to those fed the control diet throughout the experiment. Feeding quails on different levels of propolis or ascorbic acid in the diet improved feed conversion ratio, but differences were not significant compared to the control. All studied egg quality parameters were not significantly affected by different treatments. Yolk total cholesterol concentration was significantly (P≤0.05) lower for groups fed 500 mg propolis diet and this decrease reached to 3.6 % as compared to those fed the control diet, whereas, yolk total lipids were significantly (P≤0.05) decreased for groups fed ascorbic acid or different levels of propolis as compared to the control group. The decrease in yolk total lipids reached to 18.9, 23.5 and 10.2 % for the groups given 250 mg ascorbic acid, 250 and 500 mg propolis / kg diet, respectively. The studied serum constituents were significantly influenced for quails fed ascorbic acid or different levels of propolis diets. Feeding both ascorbic acid and propolis supplementation diets resulted in significantly lower total lipids, triglycerides, total cholesterol and LDL values than those fed the control diet. Malondialdehyde was significantly decreased whereas, total antioxidant capacity and glutathione peroxidase significantly increased in all treatments compared to the control. In conclusion, results indicated that propolis could effectively be added to quail ration to improve laying performance and to optimize lipid profile in egg yolk and blood and enhance the antioxidative status under summer conditions.

Egg Production Performance, Blood Biochemical and Immunological Response of Laying Japanese Quail Fed Diet Supplemented With Propolis and Bee Pollen

“…Research investigations studied the effects of propolis and bee pollen supplementation on alleviation the negative effect of heat stress oxidative damage in growing and laying quail. Significant effects of propolis and bee pollen supplementation to quail diet on the productive performance, immunological response and blood lipid profile were reported (Zeweil et al, 2016;. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of propolis and bee pollen supplementation to the diet on productive performance, egg quality, blood constituents and immunity parameters of laying Japanese quail reared under thermo-neutral environment and to find out if there is a synergistic effect between the two supplementations on quail productive performance.…”

Recent Advances in Role of Propolis as Natural Additive in Poultry Nutrition

“…Recently, Mahmoud, Abdel-Rahman, & Farghali (2015) recommended a 500 mg/kg diet dose of Chinese ether extract propolis to alleviate the hormonal and metabolic drawbacks of heat stress indicating through the lowest corticosteron level and maximum total antioxidant and MDA capacity in broilers. Similarly, feeding laying Japanese quails diets supplemented with two levels of propolis (0.25 and 0.50 g/kg diet) during summer season resulted in decreased (P≤0.05) serum MDA but increased (P≤0.05) serum total antioxidant capacity and serum glutathione peroxidase as compared to the control group (Zeweil et al, 2016). This may refer to the strong antioxidant activity of propolis; due to the present phenols compound.…”

“…The positive effects of propolis on eggshell quality could be linked to an increase in calcium digestibility and absorption due to its acid derivatives such as benzoic, 4-hydroxy-benzoic acids Seven, Tatli, & Silici, 2011). On the contrary, Zeweil et al (2016) reported that no significant difference was observed in egg laying rate, weight, number and mass of 15-wk old laying quails due to the supplementing ascorbic acid (0.25 g/kg diet) or two levels of propolis (0.25 or 0.5 g/kg diet) as compared with the control group. This difference may be due to different species and doses of propolis used in the above studies.…”

“…The improvement in feed intake (FI) and FCR was recognized to enhance flavour through the flavonoid content in propolis, and/ or due to components such as benzoic and 4-hidoxibenzoic acid, which may improve the digestibility of such nutrients as protein and ash Seven, Aksu, & Tatli, 2012a). Conversely, in some other studies have reported that propolis supplementation of broiler diets at different doses of 0.04 to1.0 g/kg (Ziaran, Rahmani, & Pourreza, 2005;Haščík et al, 2016) and quail diets at doses of 0.25, 0.50, 1.0 and 5.0 g/kg (Babaei et al, 2016;Zeweil et al, 2016) had no effect on BWG. Some researchers demonstrated that FCR improved when propolis was added to broiler chickens diets under heat stress conditions at doses of 0.20 or 0.25 g/kg (Roodsari et al, 2004), 1.0 g/kg (Ziaran, Rahmani, & Pourreza, 2005) and 5.0 g/kg and to quail diets at doses of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g/kg (Denli et al, 2005).…”

“…10 or 0. 15g/kg diet; Galal et al, 2008), broiler chickens (0.30 to 0.90g/kg diet; Attia et al, 2014;Haščík et al, 2016;Zafarnejad, Nazar, & Use of Propolis in Poultry diet Mostafa, 2017) and Japanese quail (0.25 or 0.50 g/kg diet; Zeweil et al, 2016). The decrease in triglycerides and cholesterol may be attributed to propolis that either plays a major role as antioxidant material to increase glutathione enzyme activity, or contains such components as essential fatty acids which inhibit hepatic 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity which is a key regulatory enzyme in cholesterol synthesis (Matsui et al, 2004;Babińska et al, 2013).…”