Effects of maize naturally contaminated with aflatoxin B1 on growth performance, blood profiles and hepatic histopathology in ducks

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of maize naturally contaminated with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) on growth performance, blood profiles, and hepatic histopathology in ducks. A total of 640 ducks were blocked on the basis of sex and body weight, and then allocated randomly to 5 treatments with 8 pens per treatment and 16 ducks per pen. The experiment lasted for 5 wk, and dietary treatments included control diet (CON) and diets with 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of normal maize replaced by AFB1 contaminated maize. Detectable levels of other toxins were present but only AFB1 exceeded limits and the level of AFB1 was 196.8μg/kg in the contaminated maize and ranged from 2.45 to 128.7μg/kg in the starter diet and 2.02 to 157.2μg/kg in the grower diet. Feeding AFB1 contaminated diets decreased (P<0.05) ADG and ADFI linearly and quadratically during the whole experiment, whereas overall F/G was reduced linearly (P<0.05). The mortality of ducks fed AFB1 contaminated diets linearly and quadratically increased (P<0.05). The red blood cell counts, hemoglobin amounts, hematocrit, and mean corpuscular hemoglobin were reduced (P<0.05) linearly on d 14, while mean corpuscular volume increased (P<0.05) quadratically on d 14 and linearly on d 35 in response to AFB1 contaminated diets. Feeding AFB1 contaminated diets increased (P<0.05) the activity of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) linearly, while it decreased (P<0.05) the levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), and Mg linearly on d 14. The activities of alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and AST increased (P<0.05) linearly, while the levels of TC and TG reduced (P<0.05) linearly on d 35. The activity of ALT also showed quadratic response (P<0.05) on d 14 and 35. The extent of damaged livers was increased by the inclusion of high levels of AFB1 contaminated maize. In conclusion, the feeding of maize naturally contaminated with AFB1 decreased growth performance, altered the blood profiles, and damaged the liver tissues in ducks.