Studies on Aflatoxins in Animal Feeds and its Relation to Milk Composition

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to investigate the effect of feeding aflatoxin contaminated ration on ewes' performance. This study was carried out at Noubaria Experimental Station, Animal Production Research Institute (APRI) dur.ing the period from December 2000 till February 2001. Eight ewes (50% Suffolk x 50% Rahmani) were used in this experiment and they were divided into two groups, each group contained 4 animals. The ewes were fed on concentrated feed mixture (consists of 51.5% yellow corn (non infected), 23% wheat bran, 7.5% linseed meal, 4% soybean meal, 3% undecorticated cottonseed meal, 4.5% molasss, 3% limestone, 2% salt and 1.5% urea) with addition to corn silage. Average aflatoxin 81 intake for control and treated animals within experimental period were '76.09 and 104.65 J..Lg/head/day respectively. Milk and feed samples were collected one time every week within experimental period for analysis. The results showed that milk production of. treated ewes was significantly lower (432 g/h/d) than the control (750 g/h/d). The protein and fat percent in milk for treated ewes significantly decreased as compared to control ewes whereas, it was noticed that the solid non-fat, lactose and ash percent was increased (P<0.05) for treated ewes as compared as control ewes. Aflatoxin M1 in milk was higher in treated group (0.30- 2.81 ppb) than control _ group (0.17-0.55 ppb). Meanwhile, these values were higher than recommended limits. The ratios of aflatoxin M1 and (4.52kg/h), whereas those fed on control diet gained 1.46 kg/hea9 during the experimental period. The total gains for lambs born and suckled their dames during the experimental period were in average 4.06 and 3.11kg/h for controiand treated ewes. It could be concluded that feeding ewes on diet contaminated with aflatoxin 81 affected negatively the milk production and composition.