Improving the reproductive, immunity and health status of rabbit does using honey bee venom

AbstractThe aim of the present study was to investigate the long-term effect of using bee venom (BV) on the reproductive performance, immune, and health status of rabbit does and its effect on their litters. Sixty mature does, from Spanish V-line rabbit stock, were randomly assigned to four homogeneous groups with 15 does each. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd groups were injected twice weekly under the neck skin with 0.1  ml solution contains 0.1, 0.2 and 0.3 mg BV/rabbit respectively. The 4th group served as a control group. From the results, litter size at birth, litter weight and survival rate at weaning age as well as milk yield were significantly (p  ≤ 0.05) increased in BV groups than in the control group. Serum estradiol 17-β (E2) was significantly (p  ≤ 0.05) higher (15%) in the rabbit does treated with BV compared to the control group. The treated does with BV at any study doses showed a gradual and significant (p  ≤ 0.05) decrease (12%) in serum progesterone levels (P4) compared to the control. They also showed a significant (p≤0.05) increase in conception (17%) and fertility rates (10%) compared to the control does. Treatment of rabbit does with BV caused a gradual and significant (p  ≤ 0.05) reduction in both aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (16%) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (37%) liver enzyme activities. Additionally, results have shown that BV resulted in a gradual and significant (p  ≤ 0.05) increase in total antioxidant capacity (TAC), ant...
Source: Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition - Category: Zoology Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research