Potential Benefits of Propolis in Large and Small Animal Practices: A Narrative Review of the Literature

Abstract

Propolis is a resinous substance from a mixture of different plant parts and molecules bees compose. This narrative review article explored the application of propolis in large and small animal practices in PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. Propolis is applied in different pharmaceutical forms. Due to its numerous biological actions, such as antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antiparasitic, antiulcer, antitumor, and immunomodulatory, propolis can improve animal health and production. Propolis could be used as an alternative treatment for many diseases, such as mastitis, lumpy skin disease, foot and mouth disease, reproductive disorders, and diarrhea in cattle. Moreover, it could improve weight gain in cattle. In equine, propolis has been used as a local anesthetic and for treating dermatomycosis, chronic bronchitis, and skin wounds. In pigs, propolis has been used to treat enzootic pneumonia and as a prophylaxis for gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases in weak pigs. Propolis has been applied to treat caseous lymphadenitis and parasitic diseases in sheep and goats. Furthermore, it improves the immune status of kids and the health status of late pregnant ewes. In dogs and cats, propolis has been applied to treat otitis externa, eye diseases, Cushing’s syndrome, and dermatophytosis. In dogs, propolis can treat transmissible venereal tumors. Moreover, propolis positively affects animal production, average daily gain and milk yield in sheep, growth of calves, lambs, and piglets, and cow’s milk nutritional quality. On the other hand, the addition of propolis to the diet of feedlot bulls and pigs has no effect on their feed intake, hematological, biochemical, and immunological parameters, nutrient digestibility, microbial synthesis, and carcass characteristics. Based on the available clinical studies, propolis has potential benefits for animal health in cattle, equine, sheep, goats, pigs, dogs, and cats. According to the available literature, propolis is a natural promising agent that can alternate conventional pharmaceuticals, particularly antibiotics. It improves animal health and production with no adverse effects and low cost. Most conducted studies on the efficacy of propolis on animal health and production are in vitro. Due to its scarcity, further controlled clinical trials are recommended to evaluate the exact usefulness of propolis in veterinary medicine and to obtain reliable conclusions on the benefits of propolis in animal health and production.