The Effect of in ovo Injection of Royal Jelly on the Hatchability, Quality of One Day Broiler Chickens, the Performance and some Immune Related Traits in Hatched Chickens

In order to investigate the effect of in ovo injection of different levels of royal jelly on the hatchability rate and the quality of one-day-old broiler chickens (Ross 308) and some traits of the immune system, we have conducted an experiment using 640 eggs in a completely randomized design with four levels of royal jelly injection including 1) 1 mL of physiological serum (control), 2) 0.5 mg of royal jelly, 3) 0.75 mg of royal jelly, 4) 1 mg of jelly. For each treatment, four replicates were considered and 40 eggs were used in each replicate. On the 14th day of incubation, a test solution was injected into an allantoic fluid using an insulin syringe with a 2 cm needle length. After 510 hours of incubation, all of the hatched chicks were assessed with good, moderate and poor scores. The parameters studied during the breeding of the hatched eggs included weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, as well as the immune system traits. The in ovo injection of royal jelly did not include any difference in the hatching rate, but it significantly increased the quality of the one-day-old broiler chickens (P<0.05). In addition, the weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio developed significantly as compared to the control group. The antibody titers was not affected by the experimental treatments, but it increased as a result of royal jelly injection. Regarding the performance of the birds throughout the breeding season, it can be inferred that the best performance and response of the immune system in hatched chicks was achieved when 0.5 mL of royal jelly was injected.