Effects of propolis, royal jelly, honey and bee pollen on growth performance and immune system of Japanese quails

Effect of ethanolic extract of propolis, royal jelly, honey and bee pollen in comparison with virginiamycin (as growth promoter antibiotic) as regards the performance and immune system of Japanese quail were assessed. We used 256 mixed-sex quail chicks in a completely randomized design by eight treatments, including control, ethanolic extract of propolis 1000 (PE1) and 5000 (PE2) mg kg-1, pollen powder 1000 (PO1) and 5000 (PO2) mg kg-1, royal jelly 100 mg kg-1 (RJ), honey 22 g L-1 of drinking water (H) and virginiamycin 150 mg kg-1 (V), and four replicates of eight birds in each replication for 42 days. There was significant differences for weight gain (WG), feed intakes (FI) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) between experimental groups. In addition, WG in V treatment (18.82%), H and PO2 treatments (16.87%) and RJ treatment (12.00%) were significantly higher than to control group (p < 0.01). Significantly higher values of FCR were recorded in control group while group PE2 exhibited a significant decrease for 1 to 42 day (p < 0.05). The results of effect of bee products on antibodies titer showed an increase in the Newcastle disease (ND) titer when compared with control and virginiamycin groups (p < 0.01). There was significant difference in antibody production against avian influenza (AI) and sheep red blood cells (p < 0.01). Significant differences were observed in heterophils to lymphocytes ratio among PE1, PE2, PO1 and PO2 with V and control groups (p < 0.01).