Effect of date palm pollen and bee pollen as growth promoters on the performance of saidi rams

Abstract EN

The experiment was conducted at the Animal Experimental Farm, Animal Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University, Assiut, Egypt.

The aim of this study was to determine body performance of rams drenched three times weekly for three months with: tab water (Control, C), date palm pollen (DPP) 30 gm, bee pollen (BP) 30 gm, and artificial bee bread (BB) 30 gm.

All experimental supplements suspended in tab water.

Twenty Saidi rams were assigned randomly to four treatment groups (C, DPP, BP and BB) with an average initial body weight, 35.00, 36.24, 36.74 and 35.68 kg, respectively.

Animals were fed roughage and concentrate dietsad libitum during the experimental period (three months).

Feed consumption was determined, live weight gain and feed conversion were calculated.

At the end of experimental period, the final body weight in C and DPP, BP and BB treated groups was 44.38, 52.75, 53.13, and 58.38 kg, respectively.

Regarding body weight (BW) and average daily gain DPP, BP and BB showed significant increase (P<0.05) than the control while BB significantly (P<0.05) exceeded the other two treatments DPP and BP.

No significant differences were detected between DPP and BP treated groups.

All treated rams had higher (P< 0.05) total feed intake than the control.

Feed conversion of DPP, BP and BB treated rams improved and was significantly lower (P<0.05) than the control.

While the BB treated rams group showed the lowest feed conservation rate.