Bee Products for Poultry and Rabbits: Current Challenges and Perspectives

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Small-livestock products, such as poultry and rabbit meats, are essential to global animal food production. Poultry and rabbit production has recently experienced many challenges, including climate change, disease spread, and antibiotic misuse. Bee products have emerged as promising natural alternatives to antibiotics due to their nutritional and therapeutic properties. This review aims to present an overview of the possible advantages of using different bee products, separately or combined, in poultry and rabbit farms. The results indicate that bee products can positively affect poultry and rabbit’s physiological traits, production, reproduction, health/immunity, and product quality. Therefore, bee products have great potential as a safe and effective addition to poultry and rabbit production. ABSTRACT: Poultry and rabbit production are important and rapidly growing agricultural subsectors, particularly in several developing countries. To ensure the sustainability of poultry and rabbit production, realistic poultry and rabbit farming practices must be improved. Apitherapy is a traditional alternative medicine that involves the prevention and treatment of some diseases with several bee products including propolis, royal jelly, pollen, and venom. More feeding investigations on the numerous benefits of bee products for poultry and rabbits are crucial to be addressed. Poultry and rabbit production has recently experienced numerous challenges, including climate change, disease spread, and antibiotic misuse. Improving animal welfare, health, and production is a top priority for all livestock farms, as is supplying consumers with safe and healthy products. Therefore, this review aims to collect and investigate recent relevant literature on the use of bee products, as feed additives, drinking water supplements, and injections, for poultry and rabbits to improve animal health and production. From the current findings, bee products can improve the growth and immunological performance of small-livestock animals, such as poultry and rabbits, by activating digestive enzymes, maintaining microbial balance, and promoting vitamin synthesis. Therefore, bee products could be a promising natural alternative to growth promoters, reproductive stimulants, and immunological enhancers in poultry and rabbit farms to provide safe and healthy products for humans.