USING SOME FEED INGREDIENTS AS ANTITOXINS IN BROILER DIETS

Abstract

Contamination of feeds and feed ingredients may occur at any time before and after harvest and drying, during storage, processing and manufacturing. Chemically, Aflatoxins, a group of extremely toxic chemicals, are secondary metabolites produced by fungal species of the genus Aspergillus and the major types of aflatoxins are aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), aflatoxin B2 (AFB2), aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and aflatoxin G2 (AFG2). Among the aflatoxins, AFB1 was identified to be the most toxic and most prevalent compound, followed by G1, B2 and G2 with decreasing toxicity. Severe economic losses in poultry and livestock industries caused by the aflatoxin toxicity were reported. Aflatoxin intake in broilers is associated with liver damage, poor performance, immunosuppression and mortality. Aflatoxin toxicity in poultry is also associated with biochemical, hematological, reproductive and pathological changes and increased susceptibility to environmental and microbial stresses. Adverse clinical signs depend on the nature and concentration of mycotoxin, duration of exposure, animal species, age and the nutritional and health status of birds at the time of exposure to the contaminated feeds. The present study was carried out at the Poultry Nutrition Farm, Poultry Production Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University during the period from 8 April 2011 till 20 May 2011. This current study was conducted in the two separate experiments. In the first experiment used the diets consisting of corn, soybean meal (Basal diets) and contain very low levels of Aflatoxins (less than recommended rates). In the second experiment used the diets consisting of corn, soybean meal (Basal diets) and contain high levels of Aflatoxins (higher than recommended rates). It was then added clay minerals, yeast and rice hulls to broiler diets in order to study the effect of getting rid of the negative effects of Aflatoxins on productive performance, physiological parameters, histophathological changes and aflatoxin clearance for broiler chicks and economic evaluation. Four hundred unsexed one-day old of Hubbard broiler chicks were obtained from commercial hatchery (Cairo poultry company), randomly distributed over 10 treatments within two experiments, Each treatment comprised of 40 chicks which divided into 4 replicates of 10 chicks each. Three periodical diets were formulated in two experiments includes, starter from 1 to 14 days of age, grower from 15 to 28 days of age and finisher from 29 to 42 days of age. Diets were formulated to contain 3000, 3100 and 3200 ME Kcal/Kg diets with 23, 21 and 19% crude protein for starter, grower and finisher diets respectively. The composition and calculated analysis of the diets formulated for starter, grower and finisher periods were done according to the based requirements of Hubbard broiler chicks at the strain recommended catalog. Chicks were vaccinated against Newcastle disease at 7, 21 and 28 days of age. Experimental diets and water were offered ad-libitum throughout the experimental periods. Body weight and feed consumption for all groups were recorded at the end of each period. Blood samples were collected from the slaughtered birds at the end (42 days of age) was determined.