Effects of feeding blends of grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins on performance and metabolism of laying hens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding laying hens grains naturally contaminated with a combination of Fusarium mycotoxins. Parameters measured included performance, organ weights, and plasma chemistry. One hundred and forty-four, 45-wk-old laying hens were fed diets including: (1) control, (2) contaminated grains, and (3) contaminated grains + 0.2% polymeric glucomannan mycotoxin adsorbent (GMA) for a 12-wk period. The feeding of contaminated grains decreased feed consumption compared with controls in the first 4 wk. Feed consumption increased, however, from 4 to 8 wk and from 8 to 12 wk. The efficiency of feed utilization (feed consumption/egg mass) decreased compared with controls in the periods from 4 to 8 and from 8 to 12 wk when birds were fed contaminated grains. Supplementation with GMA decreased feed consumption and increased the efficiency of feed utilization in the period from 8 to 12 wk. Egg production and egg mass decreased in wk 4 and 8 compared with controls when contaminated grains were fed, whereas egg and eggshell weights decreased in the fourth wk. Plasma uric acid concentrations increased throughout the experiment and relative kidney weights increased at the end of the experiment compared with controls when birds were fed contaminated grains. The feeding of GMA prevented the elevation in uric acid concentrations and relative kidney weights. It was concluded that layer performance and metabolism were adversely affected by chronic feeding of a combination of Fusarium mycotoxins, and that GMA prevented many of these effects.

Evaluation of a mycotoxin adsorbent in swine diets containing barley naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins

“…Among adsorbents, YCW products showed a particular affinity for Fusarium mycotoxins and are hypothesized to prevent mycotoxin absorption in the gastrointestinal tract (Huwig et al, 2001;. Several studies have shown the mycotoxin prevention effects of YCW in pigs, broilers, layers, and horses (Raymond et al, 2003;Swamy et al, 2003;Chowdhury and Smith, 2004). However, the reduced growth of pigs fed diets containing barley contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins in the present study was not recovered by adding YCW to the contaminated diets.…”

Evaluation of the effect of mycotoxin binders in animal feed on the analytical performance of standardised methods for the determination of mycotoxins in feed

“…Many studies have been performed to evaluate different commercial products intended to be used as mycotoxin binding agents and various aspects have been discussed [21,26,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. Masoero et al [49] concluded that physical processing of feed, such as pelleting, had a significant effect on the ability of added sequestering agent to reduce levels of AFM1 in milk when cattle was fed with AFB1 contaminated feed [49].…”

Aflatoxicosis in Layer and Breeder Hens

“…Kim et al (2003) found reduction in serum calcium, phosphorous and ALT and increase in gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT) levels in laying hens by dietary levels of 500ppb of aflatoxin given from week 67 in laying hens. Chowdhury & Smith (2004) reported decrease in feed efficiency when layers fed Fusarium mycotoxins contaminated diets compared with control groups. Ogido et al (2004) reported an increase in feed consumption and decrease in egg weight in Japanese quails fed with combination of 50ppb of aflatoxin B 1 and 10ppm of fumonisin B 1 for 140d.…”