A total number of 96 growing male New Zealand White (NZW) rabbits aged
35 days of age were used to determine the effect of administration of bee pollen on growth
performance, mortality rate, protein and digestible energy intakes, nutrients digestibility,
pH and count of pathogenic bacteria, carcass characteristics, blood constituents,
phytohemagglutinin-elicited skin reaction, villi measurements and absorption area as well
as economic efficiency, during the experimental period. The rabbits were weighted (658 g ±
6.30) at 5 weeks of age and divided into 4 groups of 24 rabbits each (4 groups x 8
treatments x 3 replicates = 96 rabbits). First group was kept without any treatment (control).
Second, third and fourth groups were treated administration orally by bee pollen (BP)
suspension contains 200, 300 and 400 mg BP/kg body weight daily through the
experimental period from 35-91 days of age.
The results showed that treated growing male rabbits with bee pollen (BP) caused to
increase significantly in final body weight and weight gain and to decrease in feed intake
and improved in feed conversion compared with untreated during experimental period. No
mortality rate was recorded for rabbits administration with BP groups. There were
significant improvement on digestibility coefficient and nutritive values of growing rabbits
administration with BP groups. The lowest value of pH (5.45), lowest count of E.coli
(543.81 x102 CFU) and anaerobic bacteria (5.11x106 CFU) were recorded with rabbits
administration with 400 mg BP /kg BW. Also, these were increased significantly in weight
of carcass, dressing, heart, liver, kidney and spleen percentages which were recorded due
to increased treated, while, abdominal fat was decreased. The immunity responsiveness