Volume: 55 Issue: 4
Year: 2024, Page: 782-787, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2024.55.4.782-787
Received: Sept. 22, 2024 Accepted: Oct. 22, 2024 Published: Dec. 31, 2024
The present study was conducted to assess the effect of supplementation of bee pollen (BP) in broiler chicken
on nutrient utilisation. A feeding trial was conducted on one hundred and twenty-eight, day-old Vencobb 430Y broiler
chicken at Instructional Livestock Farm Complex (ILFC), Pookode for a period of 42 days. Bee pollen was purchased
from Khadi Village Industries Corporation. Broiler chicks were grouped into four treatments, each with four replicates
having eight birds. The birds were fed with iso-caloric and iso-protein diets observing BIS 2007 specification. The T1
group was fed with basal diet and T2, T3, T4 groups were fed with 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 per cent BP incorporated basal diet
respectively. One bird from each replicate was caged in a metabolism cage, to study nutrient utilisation and apparent
digestibility coefficients. Results showed that the digestibility of dry matter, crude protein and organic matter significantly
increased in BP-supplemented groups compared to the control group. Hence it can be inferred that supplementation of
BP at 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 per cent levels can be recommended for improved nutrient digestibility in broilers.
Keywords: Bee pollen, poultry, digestibility, feed additive
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© 2024 Jyothy et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in
any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Jyothy, P.R., Rani, K.J., Chacko, B., Senthil Murugan, S., Divya, P.D., Aswathi, P.B. and Kumar, N. 2024.
Evaluation of bee pollen as a feed additive on nutrient digestibility of broiler finisher ration.
J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 55 (4):782-787