The Effects of In Ovo Injection of Propolis Extract to Breeder Eggs on Hatchability and Early Performance in Broilers

Abstract

This research was conducted to determine the effects of in ovo injection of propolis extract into the amnion to breeder eggs on hatchability and early performance in broilers. For this purpose, a total of 250 Ross 308 broiler breeder hatching eggs were obtained from a commercial hatchery. Eggs were divided into four groups randomly, isotonic serum sodium (0.9%) was injected at the level of 0.2 ml into the first group and there were used as positive control (PC) group, whereas there was no treatment on negative control (NC) group. Where the amount of 0.2 ml prepared mixture which is included %3 propolis extract were injected into low propolis (LP) group, 0.2 ml prepared mixture which is included %6 propolis extract were given into the high propolis group (HP). In ovo propolis extract injection resulted in a shorter hatching time compared with the control groups. The hatchability, hatching weight and survival of newly hatched chicks were not affected by in ovo injection of propolis extract according to our results. There were no differences between the control and treatmet groups in hatchability and embryonic mortality. The results indicated that except for the PC group chicks’ weights were similar at hatching day, but the later stage weights of chicks were started to significantly differ from each other and propolis groups have shown higher live weights than the controls at 5th and 10th day (P<0.05). All treatment groups exhibited greater weight gain from hatch to 10 d compared to the control groups. The results indicate that in ovo feeding of broiler embryos with propolis extract may have beneficial effects on day old chick weights and early growth rate.