Productive performance, biochemical and hematological traits of broiler chickens supplemented with propolis, bee pollen, and mannan oligosaccharides continuously or intermittently

Propolis (bee glue) is a sticky resinous material applied by honey bees Apis mellifera L. as a building material in their hives and as a defensive substance against infections. Propolis has been used as a remedy in traditional medicine systems all over the world, mainly to treat wounds and burns, sore throat, stomach ulcer, etc. Modern science has confirmed the antimicrobial and antiviral action of propolis, and has discovered numerous other beneficial pharmacological properties of bee glue: immunomodulating, anti-inflammatory, antiobesity, antitumor, and many others. For this reason, significant number of products containing propolis have been developed and commercialised: medical devices, over-the-counter preparations, health foods and beverages, cosmetics. This review is not dealing with propolis applications in improvement and protection of human health. Instead, it is focused on some new and promising areas of propolis use and innovative propolis containing products, emerging in the last few years: improving growth performance of livestock, food preservation, food packaging, textile materials for biomedical application, etc.

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New emerging fields of application of propolis

This review updates the information upon the chemical composition of propolis from all Mediterranean countries as well as their biological properties and applications. The non-volatile fraction of propolis was characterized by the presence of phenolic acids and their esters and flavonoids. Nevertheless, in some countries, diterpenes were also present: Sicily (Italy), Croatia, Malta, Creta (Greece), Turkey, Cyprus, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Morocco. The volatile fraction of propolis was characterized by the presence of benzoic acid and its esters, mono- and sesquiterpenes, being the oxygenated sesquiterpene β-eudesmol characteristic of poplar propolis, whereas the hydrocarbon monoterpene α-pinene has been related with the presence of conifers. Regardless the chemical composition, there are common biological properties attributed to propolis. Owing to these attributes, propolis has been target of study for applications in diverse areas, such as food, medicine and livestock.

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Insight on Propolis from Mediterranean Countries: Chemical Composition, Biological Activities and Application Fields.

Effect of sodium selenite and selenium yeast on performance, egg quality, antioxidant capacity, and selenium deposition of laying hens.

Effects of propolis on eggshell microbial activity, hatchability, and chick performance in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) eggs

We report the effects of time of storage, temperature, and supplementation with sodium selenite- and selenium-enriched yeast on the quality of quail eggs. For this study, 90 10-week-old female Japanese quails (Coturnix coturnix japonica) with similar body size were caged individually and randomly divided into five groups of 18 quails each. One group was fed a normal diet and served as control. A second group was supplemented with 0.2 mg/kg sodium selenite (In-Se) and three groups supplemented with 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3 mg/kg of a commercially available selenium-enriched yeast (O-Se1, O-Se2, and O-Se3, respectively). The eggs were collected at third and fourth weeks of the experiment and were stored at 4°C and 20°C for 0, 15, 30, and 45 days. Extension of the storage time to 45 days at 20°C resulted in significant deterioration of egg quality. The albumen Haugh unit (HU), pH, albumen index, yolk index, and egg weight loss were the most important parameters influenced by the nature of the selenium sources, storage time, and temperature. Storage time and temperature were also significant for egg weight loss, HU, and albumen and yolk indexes. The results show that supplementation with selenium yeast significantly affected shell weight, shell thickness, HU, albumen index, yolk index, and pH. The HU decreased with increased storage time and temperature. Higher levels of Se-yeast administration resulted in greater HU compared to the selenite and control groups.

Effects of Dietary Selenium Source, Storage Time, and Temperature on the Quality of Quail Eggs

This study was carried out to determine whether oregano (Origanum onites) essential oil works as a disinfectant for hatching egg obtained from broiler breeder flock. Oregano essential oil was applied at two doses 0.55 and 0.75 il/cm3 and two exposure times, 3 and 6 h. The formaldehyde treated eggs were used as positive control and untreated eggs used as negative control. After chemical analysis, the main constituents of oregano essential oil were carvacrol, linalool, para-cymene and -terpinene. The lowest microbial counts on eggs were obtained from oregano essential oil. Microbial inhibition increased with the increasing essential oil concentrations. Essential oil exposure times had no significant effects on microbial counts. Essential oil fumigation lowered middle embryonic mortality and discarded chick rate, but increased early and late embryonic mortalities compared to formaldehyde treatment. Essential oil doses significantly affected late embryonic mortality, discarded chicks rate, contamination rate, hatchability of fertile egg, body weight at 21 and 42 days, body weight gain and total feed consumption. But, early and middle embryonic mortality were not significantly affected by treatments. These results imply that oregano essential oil had great potential for hatching egg disinfectant and it could be used as natural egg disinfectant.

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Use of oregano (Origanum onites L.) essential oil as hatching egg disinfectant

Allicin, diallyl thiosulfinate, has a strong antibacterial activity against a wide range of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. The purpose of this study was to determine the possible use of allicin as a formaldehyde alternative on broiler breeder hatching eggs. The lowest microbial counts on the eggs were obtained from formaldehyde followed by allicin. Microbial counts slightly decreased with the increasing allicin concentrations. Compared to the positive control formaldehyde, allicin treatment lowered the early and late embryonic mortality, and feed conversion ratio, but increased the discarded chick rate, pipping rate and hatchability of the fertile eggs. Allicin concentrations had no significant effect either on hatching or chick growth and development after hatching. These results imply that allicin had a potential as a hatching egg disinfectant since allicin had no detrimental effect on the developing embryo.

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Gulsen Copur

Papers

Effects of propolis on eggshell microbial activity, hatchability, and chick performance in Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) eggs

Effects of Dietary Selenium Source, Storage Time, and Temperature on the Quality of Quail Eggs

Use of oregano (Origanum onites L.) essential oil as hatching egg disinfectant

Use of Allicin as an Alternative Hatching Egg Disinfectant Versus Formaldehyde Fumigation in Broiler Hatching Eggs

Effects of different selection methods for body weight on some genetic parameters in Japanese quail.