Importance of feed additives used in poultry rations: Royal Jelly example

Abstract

Royal Jelly; It is a bee product secreted from the mandibular and hypopharyngeal glands in their heads as a result of the digestion of pollen and nectar by young worker bees aged 5-15 days. It is light beige and yellowish white in color and has an intensely essential and sour taste. An unsaturated fatty acid “10-hydroxy-2-decanoic acid”, which is found only in royal jelly in nature, provides royal jelly with unique properties. Royal jelly is a quality feed additive that can be used in poultry rations due to its antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant, antidiabetic, hypoglycemic and antitumor properties. These effects of royal jelly have been the focus of attention for researchers, and in this direction, some studies have been carried out in rabbits, rats, turkeys, quails and laying and broiler chickens. However, the production of royal jelly by worker bees in small quantities as needed (queen bee production) makes it valuable and therefore prevents it from being used in planned scientific studies. In addition, although studies on bee products such as pollen and propolis and poultry feeding have gained acceleration, there is not enough literature on royal jelly. However, royal jelly can be evaluated as a feed additive that can be used in the field with the performance to be obtained as a result of the correct doses to be determined in poultry feeding and breeding studies and the economic outputs in the field of health being more than the cost value. As a result, it was concluded that more scientific studies are needed to determine the possible positive effects of royal jelly, which is one of the bee products in poultry nutrition, in terms of performance and slaughter characteristics.