195/22 | Research Article | Veterinary Preventive Medicine

Honeybee venom as an Ecofriendly Alternative Treatment and its Effect on the Immune status of Broiler Chickens Exposed to Aflatoxin B1

Animal Health Research Institute (AHRI),Agriculture Research Center (ARC), Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

The contamination of feed with aflatoxin B1(AFB1) constitutes a major risk in poultry industry and a health hazard for humans. The present study illustrates the advantages of using bee venom (BV) as a natural curative agent for AFB1 toxicity. Two hundred chicks were divided into five groups: Group 1 received healthy feed only, Group 2 received vaccinations and healthy feed; Groups 3, 4 and 5 were vaccinated and had feed intoxicated with AFB1 (1 mg/kg ration) starting from 10 day old till the end of the experiment at 42 days old; Group 4 also received bee venom (2mg/L) as a treatment in drinking water starting from 17th day till the end of the experiment, Group 5 received the same dose of bee venom prophylactically starting from 1st day. The obtained data illustrated that using bee venom could significantly modulate the immune suppressive effect of AFB1 as: phagocytic activity, lysozyme concentration, nitric oxide levels (NO), hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) antibody titer against Newcastle Disease Virus Vaccine (NDVV) and IFN-γ mRNA expression. These findings support the possibility of using bee venom as a natural therapy in attenuating the toxic effect of AFB1.

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