This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of Chinese propolis on the histological structure of bursa of Fabricius in Ross 308 broiler chickens. Eighty chicks were divided into 5 groups, 16 chicks each. Group 1 was fed only on basic diet and kept as control while groups 2, 3, 4 and 5 were fed on basic diet and received ether extract of propolis (EEP) in a dose of 100, 250, 500 or 750 mg/kg diet respectively. The treatment started from the first day after hatching and extended to day 42 where all birds were sacrificed and bursa of Fabricius were removed, processed and examined histologically. Chickens received EEP in a dose of 100 and 250 mg/kg diet showed an increase in size of the bursal folds and bursal lymphoid follicles with minimal regressive changes into the bursa such as a slight increase in the amount of inter-follicular connective tissue. Higher doses of EEP (500 and 750 mg/kg diet) produced substantial changes into the bursa such as degeneration in lymphatic follicles represented by cyst formation, liquifactive necrosis and significant increase in inter-follicular connective tissue. Our findings suggest that high doses of EEP led to faster bursal involution with subsequent negative impact on the humoral immune status of chicken.

The study aimed to describe the pattern of changes in clinical findings and lipid metabolism profiles in dairy cattle with displacement of the abomasum (DA) from day 0 until day 30 after operation. The study was conducted on DA cattle (n= 25) belonged to dairy farms in Hokkaido area, Japan. Cows were examined and sampled at days 0 (operation), 7 and 30. They were clinically and biochemically examined to estimate BCS and many serum biochemical constituents such as lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) and apolipoprotein B-100 (apoB-100), ß-hydroxybutyric acid (BHBA), non-esterified fatty acids (NEFAs) and aspartate amino transferase (AST). Based on blood BHBA at day 0, DA cows were classified into three categories; DA only (<1.2 mmol/l), DA with subclinical ketosis (DA SCK) (1.2-2.4 mmol/l) and DA with clinical ketosis (DA CK) (=2.5 mmol/l). The changes in the pattern of serum biochemical constituents throughout this study indicated recovery of diseased cows and significant effect of surgical operation. Serum biochemical constituents returned to their physiological values indicating that these cows were restoring their normal physiological status. This was reflected through a significant (P<0.05) elevation of LCAT, apoB-100, and cholesterol and a significant (P<0.05) reduction in AST, NEFAs and BHBA (Not in DA group), in all DA groups particularly at day 30 when their values compared with those at day 0. The current study also recorded no remarkable changes (P>0.05) between the diseased groups except for NEFA and BHBA (at day 0 between DA group and the other two groups) at any of the three sampling days.

Comparative studies concerned the upper air ways of domestic animals are few. So this study was carried out to compare between the larynx of buffaloes, camels and donkeys. The present investigation was carried out on 39 larynxes, 13 larynxes (7 males, 6 females) of each species. Ten heads from each species were used for gross anatomical study; the remained three heads were used for the histological study. Results revealed that, the laryngeal cartilages of the three species were consisted of three single cartilages; the thyroid, the cricoid and the epiglottis, and two paired cartilages; the arytenoid and the corniculate. The cuneiform cartilages were paired cartilages present only in the larynx of the donkey. Thyroid, arytenoid and cricoid cartilages were of hyaline type, while the epiglottis, cuniform and corniculate cartilages and the vocal process of the arytenoid cartilage were of elastic type. The laryngeal epithelium of aditus laryngis, greater part of epiglottis and vocal folds was lined by non-keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. The remained parts of laryngeal epithelium from base of epiglottis and entire parts caudal to vocal folds were lined by pseudostratified columnar ciliated epithelium with goblet cells. The laryngeal glands of lamina propria were of mixed types in buffaloes and donkeys but in camels it was pure mucous glands. This study will fill a gap in the field of comparative anatomy and help other clinical investigation applied on these animals.

The present study was performed to investigate the effect of feeding citric acid with different protein levels on duck performance, carcass traits and blood parameters. A total number of 40 two weeks old Molar ducklings were randomly distributed into 4 equal groups, each of 10. The control diet was formulated to contain approximately crude protein (CP) (16%) and metabolizable energy (3000 kcal/kg diet) as recommended by NRC (1994). The first group was fed on control diet (16% CP) without any feed additives, while groups 2, 3 and 4 (T2, T3 and T4) were fed on basal diets containing 16, 14 and 12% CP respectively and supplemented with citric acid at 1.50% of the grower-finisher diet. The results showed that, birds fed on 16% protein diet supplemented with citric acid recorded significantly the best live body weight, body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion compared with other treatments. There were no significant differences in hot carcass percentage, eviscerated percentage, dressing percentage and relative percentage of internal organs (gizzard, heart, liver and spleen) between different experimental groups. There were no significant differences in the level of serum total protein and triglycerides, while there were significant (P<0.05) differences in serum albumin, globulin, cholesterol and uric acid between control group and other treatments. There were no significant differences in the intestinal pH between different experimental groups. The relative economic feed efficiency was the highest in birds fed 16% protein diet supplemented with citric acid compared with other treated groups. It could be concluded that, dietary inclusion of 1.50 % citric acid in 16% protein diet improved body weight, weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio and carcass traits.

Newcastle disease virus (NDV) caused an outbreak among commercial broiler chickens in the educational farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University-Egypt. Its velogenicty was characterized by Intracerebral pathogenicity index (ICPI) of 1.65. The outbreak raised concerns regarding the role of quails as a neighboring bird to the broiler chickens in the affected farm in transmission of this virus to chickens. 35 days old quails were infected oculo-nasal with velogenic strain of Newcastle disease virus accompanied with chickens were in contact with these infected quails to determine the role of quails in the epidemiology of ND infection. Hemagglutination inhibition (HI) antibodies were measured for assessment of antibody response as well as oro-pharynx swabs were used for detection of the virus shedding. The susceptibility of quails to NDV infection was more resistant than that were observed in chickens. 6.6-13.3% of challenged non-vaccinated quails were died in contrast to 80-100% mortality in experimentally infected chickens till the end of experiment 3 weeks after challenge. Up to 13.3% of infected quails exhibited general clinical signs in contrast to 100% of non vaccinated chickens shown clinical signs were primarily respiratory. Infected quails could excrete infectious virus from the oro-pharynx for a shorter period than that observed with infected in-contact chickens in special to the vaccinated groups the shedding was reduced significantly either in quails and chickens. The results confirmed that some of the naturally occurring NDV virulent strains can cause the disease in quails but in a mild form, and that quails play an important role in the epidemiology of ND and its transmission to chickens causing heavy economic losses. These results under- score the need to develop new vaccine strategies for use in quails to protect birds from both disease and infection to reduce virus shedding and its spreading.