The abuse of contraceptive pills as growth promoters in the poultry industry has serious health concerns. Consumption of hormonal residues in animal products results in reproductive disorders and an increased risk of cancers in humans. This study aimed to investigate the effect of treatment with progesterone hormone on the plasma proteins and RAPD-DNA markers of broiler chickens. One hundred, one-day-old broiler chicks were equally divided into 5 groups (n = 20). Four groups were treated daily

more »

... ith progesterone hormone either subcutaneously or orally (1.0 mg, 1.5mg/kg). The 5 th group was control non-treated chicken. Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel-electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), and RAPD assays in conjunction with productive parameters such as growth rate were assessed. SDS-PAGE and RAPD-DNA patterns were significantly affected by progesterone hormone treatment. Either or oral or subcutaneous progesterone hormone treatments increased the body weight of chicks compared to control. Treatment with progesterone hormone induces effects on both DNA and plasma proteins in broiler chickens. Changes at the genomic DNA level may be due to specific modifications in RAPD patterns or arise as a consequence of hot spot DNA changes and/or mutations.