Project Directorate on Poultry, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500030, India
2 Corresponding author rajumvln@rediffmail.com
1 Part of the work done under National Agricultural Technology Project
A feeding trial was conducted to assess the effects of aflatoxin B1 (AF) @ 0 and 300ppb in diet and enzyme mixture (dehydrogenase, reductase, lactonase and epoxidase) from bacterial source @ 0, 0.025 and 0.05% in diet on broiler chicks (270 from 0 to 6 weeks of age) in a 2 x 3 factorial manner. Aflatoxin depressed (P<0.05) body weight, feed intake, serum protein and cholesterol concentrations, thymus and tibia weights and ready-to-cook weight (RCW) and increased (P<0.05) liver, giblets, kidney, spleen and adrenal weights and serum gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) activity. Dietary supplementation of enzyme mix increased (P<0.05) body weight, bursa weight and serum protein and cholesterol contents and reduced (P<0.05) serum α-glutamytransferase (GGT) level and weights of liver, giblets and kidneys interaction between AF and enzyme indicated that enzyme supplementation at 0.05% level to AF-fed groups improved (P<0.05) body weight and serum protein and cholesterol concentrations and decreased (P<0.05) serum GGT activity to levels that were intermediary to those of the AF-free and AF-fed groups. The RCW was increased (P<0.05) by dietary enzyme supplementation at both the levels to the AF-diet, the yield at 0.05% level being on par with that of the AF-free group. In AF-fed groups, enzyme mix reduced the liver weight at 0.05% level and showed such an effect on kidney weight at both the levels of supplementation. It was concluded that dietary supplementation of enzyme mix was partially effective in countering AF in broiler chicken.
Aflatoxicosis, Mycotoxin degrading enzymes, Performance, Broilers
