Effects of pollen and propolis on productive and immune performance in meat fowl

Abstract

Pollen and propolis were used as feed additives to feed the LingNan meat fowl in an experiment. Meat fowlswere divided into five groups. The proportion of pollen to propolis is 5∶1 in group A, that of pollen to propolis is 2.5∶1in group B, single pollen is in group C, single propolis is in group D , and E is the control group. The productive and immuneperformance of fowls were measured. The result showed that the average body weights of group A,B,C and D increased by6.89%, 9.29%, 0.77%, 2.03% compared with the control by the end of week 6. During the whole experimental period, the feedconversion rate of group A was the highest, 3.28% less than the control group. No significant differences (P 0.05)betweenall test groups and control group in slaughter percentage, breastmeat percentage, semi-eviscerated percentage ,evisceratedpercentage was found. Group A,B,C showed significant difference with control group(P0.05) in thighs ratio. No significantdifference was found in the content of total albumen, albumin, globulin, globulin/albumin in serum between all test groupsand control group in week 3. The content of total albumen and globulin of the group D was the highest ,which showedsignificant difference with the control group(P0.05) in week 6. The group C and D had significant difference with thecontrol group in thymus index in week 3. The indexs of bursal and thymus of the group B was the highest in week 6, whichincreased by 22.77% and 17.61%, respectively,as compared with the. Control group.