Abstract
AbstractThe effect of aflatoxin was measured on the protein quality of peanut meal (PNM) and fish meal (FM) Total protein efficiency, protein efficiency ratio, net protein utilisation, examination of the histopathology of the liver, ileal digesion of amino acids and plasma amino acid concentration were used as bioassays together with chemical score (CS), dye binding capacity (DBC), essential amino acid index (EAAI), and discriminant computered PER (DC‐PER) as chemical methods.In trial 1, aflatoxin‐free PNM was compared with infected PNM at graded levels of toxin when fed to chickens and ducklings. In trial 2, various mixtures of PNM and FM at a constant aflatoxin level (280 μg kg−1) were fed to compare the effects of aflatoxin on proteins of differing quality.Ducks were more sensitive to the toxin than chickens, as indicated by deterioration of protein quality, and the effects on growth and the histological appearance of the liver were magnified on diets of low quality (PNM), but not of high quality (FM). Contamination of PNM resulted in progressive increase in DBC and, to a lesser extent, in DC‐PER, while EAAI and CS were not affected.The importance of these findings lies in the problems of mould contamination of animal feedstuffs in humid, tropical conditions, which may affect the more sensitive animals, and may not be detected by chemical methods of measuring protein quality, nor by bioassay on chickens, if the levels of contamination are low.
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