Division of Avian Nutrition and Feed Technology, ICAR-Central Avian Research Institute, Izatnagar-243122, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Corresponding author: E-mail: carirsingh@yahoo.co.in, Present address: Principal Scientist, ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Buffaloes, Hisar-125004, Haryana, India
Online published on 29 November, 2018.
The present study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of vitamin C (VC) in ameliorating ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination in diet of broiler chicken. Day old broiler chicks (n=240) were divided into 6 groups (T1control (Basal diet); T2-T1 + 150 ppb OTA; T3-T1 + 100 mg VC; T4-T1 + 200 mg VC; T5-T2 + 100 mg VC; T6-T2 + 200 mg VC per kg diet). Each diet was fed to 5 replicates of 8 birds each from 0 to 42 days of age. During overall growth period (0–6 weeks), the body weight gain (BWG) of control group (T1) was higher (P<0.05) than that of toxin fed group (T2). The BWG in groups T5 and T6 was higher (P<0.05) than that in group T2 but lower (P<0.05) than that of control group. The feed intake was similar in all the groups. The FCR in group (T1) was lower (P<0.05) than that of group T2. The FCR in other groups was similar to that of control. The relative weight of liver and kidney in group T1 was lower (P<0.05) than that of group T2. The relative weight of bursa of Fabricius in control group was higher (P<0.05) than that of groupT2. The total serum protein and cholesterol content of control group was higher (P<0.05) than that of group T2. The uric acid and alkaline phosphatase values of group T1 were lower (P<0.05) than that of group T2. Hence, inclusion of 100 mg vitamin C per kg diet to the ochratoxin (150 ppb) contaminated feed partially ameliorated the adverse effects of ochratoxicosis on production performance, relative organ weights and biochemical parameters of broiler chicken.
Broiler chicken, Ochratoxin, Performance, Vitamin C
