Background: Heat stress condition (34 °C, Egyptian summer season) in pigeon leads to a lot of negative impacts on behavior, physiology, hepatic architecture, and biochemical parameter changes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of water bath as a managerial and low-quality diet (wheat) as well as some feed additives (propolis or black seed) as nutritional factors for improvement of these changes. Results: The result showed that heat stress condition induced a significant decrease in feeding behavior, feed intake, body gain, HL ratio, and total antioxidants, while catalase, glucose, and cholesterol levels were significantly increased. These changes were accompanied by severe damage of the hepatic tissues that illustrated as swelling, vacuolation, collagenous tissue deposition, and venous congestion. Conclusions: The negative effect of heat stress condition was significantly declined by addition of water bath or feeding on black seed grains. Furthermore, feeding on the wheat grains only during summer season had economic impact as it did not show any more negative effects on the studied parameters. In conclusion, water bath and black seed have a protective role against the heat stress-mediated effects.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of propolis on broiler performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters. The experiment was carried out with a completely randomized design of 4 treatments, supplemented with propolis at the rate of 0, 1, 2, and 3 mg/kg diet for 6 weeks. The results indicated that birds diet supplementation with propolis increased body weight (P0.05), decreased feed intake and improved feed efficiency during the experiment. Carcass traits did not show significant differences for the treatments, with the exception of dressing percentage. The serum total protein and globulins were significantly (P0.05) increased and the serum cholesterol and triglycerides were significantly (P0.05) decreased in propolis supplemented broilers. No significant differences were observed in hematological parameters among the different groups. It could be concluded that dietary inclusion of propolis to poultry diets had a positive effect on growth performance and improved the immune response by elevating blood globulins level. Also, it decreases blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of propolis on broiler performance, carcass characteristics and blood parameters. The experiment was carried out with a completely randomized design of 4 treatments, supplemented with propolis at the rate of 0, 1, 2, and 3 mg/kg diet for 6 weeks. The results indicated that birds diet supplementation with propolis increased body weight (P0.05), decreased feed intake and improved feed efficiency during the experiment. Carcass traits did not show significant differences for the treatments, with the exception of dressing percentage. The serum total protein and globulins were significantly (P0.05) increased and the serum cholesterol and triglycerides were significantly (P0.05) decreased in propolis supplemented broilers. No significant differences were observed in hematological parameters among the different groups. It could be concluded that dietary inclusion of propolis to poultry diets had a positive effect on growth performance and improved the immune response by elevating blood globulins level. Also, it decreases blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

The present study was performed to investigate the effect of feeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae (probiotic) with different protein levels on duck performance, carcass traits and blood parameters. A total number of 40 two weeks old Molar ducklings randomly distributed into 4 equal groups.The first group was fed on control diet (16% CP) without any feed additives, while groups 2, 3 and 4 (T2, T3 and T4) were fed on basal diets containing 16, 14 and 12% CP respectively and supplemented with probiotic. Additives was probiotic, thepax (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), at 0.1% of the grower-finisher diet. The results showed that, birds fed on 16% protein diet supplemented with probiotic recorded significantly the best live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion compared with other treatments. There were no significant differences in hot carcass percentage, eviscerated percentage, dressing percentage and relative percentage of internal organs (gizzard, heart, liver and spleen), total protein and triglycerides, between different experimental groups. While there were significant (P0.05) differences in serum albumin, globulin, cholesterol and uric acid between control group and other treatments. The relative economic feed efficiency was the highest in birds fed 16%protein diets supplemented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae compared with other treated groups. It could be concluded that, dietary inclusion of 0.1% S.cerevisiae in 16% protein diet improved body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio and carcass traits

The present study was performed to investigate the effect of feeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae (probiotic) with different protein levels on duck performance, carcass traits and blood parameters. A total number of 40 two weeks old Molar ducklings randomly distributed into 4 equal groups.The first group was fed on control diet (16% CP) without any feed additives, while groups 2, 3 and 4 (T2, T3 and T4) were fed on basal diets containing 16, 14 and 12% CP respectively and supplemented with probiotic. Additives was probiotic, thepax (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), at 0.1% of the grower-finisher diet. The results showed that, birds fed on 16% protein diet supplemented with probiotic recorded significantly the best live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion compared with other treatments. There were no significant differences in hot carcass percentage, eviscerated percentage, dressing percentage and relative percentage of internal organs (gizzard, heart, liver and spleen), total protein and triglycerides, between different experimental groups. While there were significant (P0.05) differences in serum albumin, globulin, cholesterol and uric acid between control group and other treatments. The relative economic feed efficiency was the highest in birds fed 16%protein diets supplemented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae compared with other treated groups. It could be concluded that, dietary inclusion of 0.1% S.cerevisiae in 16% protein diet improved body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio and carcass traits

The present study was performed to investigate the effect of feeding Saccharomyces cerevisiae (probiotic) with different protein levels on duck performance, carcass traits and blood parameters. A total number of 40 two weeks old Molar ducklings randomly distributed into 4 equal groups.The first group was fed on control diet (16% CP) without any feed additives, while groups 2, 3 and 4 (T2, T3 and T4) were fed on basal diets containing 16, 14 and 12% CP respectively and supplemented with probiotic. Additives was probiotic, thepax (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), at 0.1% of the grower-finisher diet. The results showed that, birds fed on 16% protein diet supplemented with probiotic recorded significantly the best live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion compared with other treatments. There were no significant differences in hot carcass percentage, eviscerated percentage, dressing percentage and relative percentage of internal organs (gizzard, heart, liver and spleen), total protein and triglycerides, between different experimental groups. While there were significant (P0.05) differences in serum albumin, globulin, cholesterol and uric acid between control group and other treatments. The relative economic feed efficiency was the highest in birds fed 16%protein diets supplemented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae compared with other treated groups. It could be concluded that, dietary inclusion of 0.1% S.cerevisiae in 16% protein diet improved body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio and carcass traits

A study using one hundred unsexed day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308), 25 birds/treatment was conducted to evaluate the effect of ginger powder as natural feed additives on the growth performance, carcass traits and blood parameters of broiler chickens. Four dietary treatments were formulated to meet the nutrient requirements of broiler chicks containing ginger powder at levels 0%, 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.6%. The results showed that no significant differences were recorded in body weight and body weight gain between different experimental groups. Birds fed diets supplemented with ginger exhibited better feed conversion (P>0.05) and lower feed intake than control birds. The measurements of carcass traits, hematological values and serum biochemical parameters showed no marked variation between the treated groups. It could be concluded that ginger powder at the used levels in this experiment has not potential to be used as a growth promoter in broiler chicks.

A study using one hundred unsexed day-old broiler chicks (Ross 308), 25 birds/treatment was conducted to evaluate the effect of ginger powder as natural feed additives on the growth performance, carcass traits and blood parameters of broiler chickens. Four dietary treatments were formulated to meet the nutrient requirements of broiler chicks containing ginger powder at levels 0%, 0.2%, 0.4% and 0.6%. The results showed that no significant differences were recorded in body weight and body weight gain between different experimental groups. Birds fed diets supplemented with ginger exhibited better feed conversion (P>0.05) and lower feed intake than control birds. The measurements of carcass traits, hematological values and serum biochemical parameters showed no marked variation between the treated groups. It could be concluded that ginger powder at the used levels in this experiment has not potential to be used as a growth promoter in broiler chicks.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cress seeds supplementation on growth performance, carcass characteristics and behavior of broilers. A total of sixty-one- month day old cockerels were utilized for this study, obtained from a local commercial farm. They were randomly distributed to four groups (n=15, each) with three replicates within group. In the first group, birds were fed on basal diet without addition of cress seeds (CS) which was assigned as control. In second, third and fourth groups birds were fed on basal diet with supplementation of different concentrations of cress seeds (0.5 (T1), 1(T2) and 1.5 (T3) % respectively). The treatment was continued for 5 weeks period. The obtained results showed that supplementation with cress seeds at concentration of 1% has positive effect on broiler body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, production efficiency factor, broiler index and ingestive and sitting behavior. The relative weights of proventriculus, gizzard and heart were significantly affected by dietary inclusion of CS into broiler diets. Serum total protein and globulin were significantly (P0.05) increased in experimental groups compared with control group. The results also showed that the supplementation of chicks by 1% cress seeds could enhance the economic efficiency. It was concluded that supplementation of cress seeds by 1% in ration could improve the behavior, growth performance and economic efficiency of broilers.

The present study was performed to investigate the effect of feeding citric acid with different protein levels on duck performance, carcass traits and blood parameters. A total number of 40 two weeks old Molar ducklings were randomly distributed into 4 equal groups, each of 10. The control diet was formulated to contain approximately crude protein (CP) (16%) and metabolizable energy (3000 kcal/kg diet) as recommended by NRC (1994). The first group was fed on control diet (16% CP) without any feed additives, while groups 2, 3 and 4 (T2, T3 and T4) were fed on basal diets containing 16, 14 and 12% CP respectively and supplemented with citric acid at 1.50% of the grower-finisher diet. The results showed that, birds fed on 16% protein diet supplemented with citric acid recorded significantly the best live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion compared with other treatments. There were no significant differences in hot carcass percentage, eviscerated percentage, dressing percentage and relative percentage of internal organs (gizzard, heart, liver and spleen) between different experimental groups. There were no significant differences in the level of serum total protein and triglycerides, while there were significant (P0.05) differences in serum albumin, globulin, cholesterol and uric acid between control group and other treatments. There were no significant differences in the intestinal pH between different experimental groups. The relative economic feed efficiency was the highest in birds fed 16% protein diet supplemented with citric acid compared with other treated groups. It could be concluded that, dietary inclusion of 1.50 % citric acid in 16% protein diet improved body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio and carcass traits.