Ninety six unsexed one-day old; Ross 308 broiler chicks were randomly divided into 4 treatment groups. Each treatment had 3 replicates with 8 chicks each. The chicks of each replicate were allocated in a cage in a windowless house. The experimental period was divided into two feeding phases, starter (0-3 weeks of age) and grower (4-6 weeks of age). The basal experimental diets had 23.33 and 20.42% crude protein and 3115 and 3162 Kcal ME/kg diet for the starter and the grower diet, respectively. Chicks in first treatment were injected muscularly with saline solution weekly and served as a control. Whereas, in treatments 2, 3 and 4 chicks were injected muscularly with 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 mg of honey bee venom (BV) extract weekly till 5 weeks of age, respectively.
Injection with BV decreased significantly (P<0.05) body weight (BW) at 3 weeks of age, average daily gain (ADG) during the period from 0-3 weeks of age and daily feed intake (FI) during the periods from 4-6 and 0-6 weeks of age. On the other hand, there were no significant differences (P>0.05) in BW at 6 weeks of age, ADG at 4-6 and 0-6 weeks of age, FI during period from 0-3 weeks of age, feed conversion ratio, haemagglutinin antibody titers against (SRBC), aspartate amino transaminase (AST) and alanine amino transaminase (ALT), serum total protein, albumin (Alb.), globulin (Glb.), (Alb./Glb.), cholesterol and total lipids. These data indicate that injection of broiler with BV extract by these doses did not adversely affect the productive performance and physiological traits However,BV extract has the ability to enhance the immune responses of broiler chicks. But more research is needed in future to evaluate the best dose and different supplementation methods.
Ali, A. H. H * and K. M. Mohanny**
*Animal and poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt
**Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, South Valley University, Qena, Egypt