Effect of dietary AFB₁ on growth performance, carcass traits and meat sensory attributes in broiler chicken

A study was carried out to investigate the effect of supplementation of graded levels of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) [@ 0.0 (T₁ - control), 0.5 (T₂), 1.0 (T₃) and 2.0 ppm (T₄)] in the basal diet of eighty day-old straight run Hubbard broiler chicks on growth performance, carcass traits and meat sensory attributes. The results revealed that there was significant decrease in body weight gain, feed intake and FCE due to inclusion of AFB₁ at all levels over control. The highest dressing percentage (89.28) and edible meat percentage (79.12) was observed in control group, whereas, declining trend was observed in T₂, T₃ and T₄ groups. The feed cost required/kg live body weight gain and feed cost required/kg edible meat were observed to be lowest in control (T₁) group as compare to other treatment groups receiving AFB₁ in the diet. No mortality was observed in any of the experimental groups throughout the experimental period of eight weeks. Organoleptic evaluation revealed that the average scores for tenderness, consistency and flavor of broiler meat were highest in control (T₁) group, which declined with increasing level of AFB₁ in the diet of broilers. It was concluded that supplementation of aflatoxin B₁ even at 0.5% level during 0 to 6 weeks of age resulted in deleterious effects on growth performance, carcass traits, meat sensory and economic traits.