1Department of Animal Nutrition, Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana, India
*Corresponding author: J Kaur; E-mail: sachdeva_jasmine@rediffmail.com
Online Published on 27 February, 2026.
The current study was designed to evaluate the chemical composition and in vitro nutritional worth of maize silage based total mixed ration (R:C ratio of 65:35) consisting of graded levels of bee propolis. Bee propolis was added to maize silage based total mixed ration (TMR) at 0, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15 and 0.2% on DM basis. The net gas production, partitioning factor, digestibility of nutrients (OM, NDF, DM), microbial mass production, efficiency of microbial mass production, short chain fatty acids and metabolizable energy (ME) were not affected by the addition of graded levels of bee propolis. However, inclusion of bee propolis @ 0.2 percent (DM basis) significantly reduced (P<0.05) ammoniacal-N production (NH3-N) in the in vitro medium. Therefore, bee propolis could be added at 0.2% level on DM basis in the maize silage based TMR without affecting feed digestibility and microbial mass production with a potential to decrease nitrogen losses and improve feed efficiency.
⓿ Effects of adding graded levels of bee propolis to maize silage based TMR were studied in vitro.
⓿ In vitro ammonia-N decreased ((P≤0.05) at 0.2% inclusion level of bee propolis in TMR.
Ammoniacal nitrogen, Bee propolis, In vitro evaluation
