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Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences

Year: 2005 | Volume: 8 | Issue: 10 | Page No.: 1485-1490
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Authors

H.R. Ziaran

H.R. Rahmani

J. Pourreza

Keywords

Research Article

Effect of Dietary Oil Extract of Propolis on Immune Response and Broiler Performance

H.R. Ziaran, H.R. Rahmani and J. Pourreza
This investigation was conducted to determine the effect of different levels of Oil Extract of Propolis (OEP) on immune system of broiler chickens from 1 to 47 days of age. Chicks were fed soybean meal-corn diets supplemented with levels of 0, 40, 70, 100, 400, 700 and 1000 mg kg-1 of OEP from hatching. On days 20 and 32, they were immunized with Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) and examined 10 days later. In general, the immune system can be stimulated by addition of OEP, without affecting the performance. At 30 days of age after immunization at 20 days, antibody response to NDV was significantly increased in chickens fed with 70 and 100 mg kg-1 of OEP in the diet (p<0.05). No effect of dietary OEP was observed on the ratio of gamma globulins to total serum proteins. Heterophil to lymphocyte ratio was significantly decreased in chickens fed with 40 and 70 mg kg-1 of OEP in the diet (p<0.05). Investigation of histological sections revealed that the number of proliferating cells of bursa of fabricius was increased in chickens fed with 1000 mg kg-1 of OEP in the diet. When broilers received the high levels (400, 700 and 1000 mg kg-1) of OEP in the diet the number of leukocytes in the lamina propria of intestine was higher compared with other levels of dietary OEP. The number of lymphoid cells in the preportal area of the liver increased at the highest dose (1000 mg kg-1) of OEP and the thickness of blood vessels wall increased at control treatment. The results indicate that both humoral and cellular immune responses were modulated by different levels of OEP in the diet and suggest that low levels (40 and 70 mg kg-1) of dietary OEP developed the immune response, whereas the chickens fed highly enriched OEP diet, showed lower immune response.
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