To investigate the response of feeding Japanese quail chicks to propolis
supplementation on growth performance, blood constituents, hormones, immunity,
antioxidant, carcass characteristics and bacterial count, one hundred and twenty, one-
week-old Japanese quail chicks were divided to four dietary groups with three replicates
(10 birds). The first group fed a basal diet, while the groups 2nd,3rdand 4thwere fed
with 200, 400 and 600 mg of propolis/kg diet until the age of six weeks. The results
showed a significant improvement in feed intake, body weight, body weight gain and
feed conversion with increasing of propolis supplementation. All treatments increased
significantly (P<0.01) percentage of dressing and internal organs than the Control
birds.Propolis supplementation significantly (P<0.01) increased blood components; Hb,
RBC, PCV, WBCs, lymphocyte, total protein, globulin, albumin, glucose, high density
lipoprotein, total antioxidant capacity, IgM, IgG, thyroid hormones (x103) as compared
to control group and decreased total lipids, plasma cholesterol, LDL, ALT, AST.
Moreover, propolis decreased the Intestinal total anaerobic, aerobic microflora counts
and total coliform compared to control group. There was no effect on monocytes,
eosinophils and neutrophils as compared to control group.The results showed that
supplementation of propolis at levels of 200, 400 and 600 mg of propolis/kg feed
improves growth performance, blood components, antioxidant indices, thyroid
hormones, immune parameters and carcass characteristics.