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.