Insights on the Host Stress, Fear and Growth Responses to the Deoxynivalenol Feed Contaminant in Broiler Chickens

Khaled Ghareeb,Omer E Sid-Ahmed,Wageha A Awad,Josef Böhm,Hemachandra Reddy

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0087727

Khaled Ghareeb, Omer E Sid-Ahmed + Show 3 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0087727

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Abstract

Mycotoxins pose an important danger to human and animal health. Poultry feeds are frequently contaminated with deoxynivalenol (DON) mycotoxin. It is thus of great importance to evaluate the effects of DON on the welfare related parameters in poultry industry. In the present study, the effects of contamination of broiler diet with 10 mg DON/kg feed on plasma corticosterone and heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L) ratio as indicators of stress, tonic immobility duration as an index for fear response and growth performance of broiler chickens were studied. In addition, the effect of a microbial feed additive either alone or in combination with DON contamination on these different aspects was also evaluated. The results showed that DON feeding significantly affected the welfare related parameters of broiler chickens. The feeding of DON contaminated diet resulted in an elevation of plasma corticosterone, higher H/L ratio and increased the fear levels as indicated by longer duration of tonic immobility reaction. Furthermore, DON reduced the body weight and body weight gain during the starter phase definitely at the second and third week. However, during grower phase, feeding of DON decreased the body weight at the fourth week and reduced the body gain at the fifth week. Addition of the microbial feed additive, a commercial antidote for DON mycotoxin, was able to overcome DON effects on stress index (H/L ratio), fearfulness and growth parameters of broilers. In conclusion, we showed for the first time that the DON feeding increased the underlying fearfulness and physiological stress responses of broilers and resulted in a reduction in the welfare status as indicated by higher plasma corticosterone, higher H/L ratio and higher fearfulness. Additionally, feeding the microbial feed additive was effective in reducing the adverse effects of DON on the bird's welfare and can improve the performance of broiler chickens.

Highlights

Deoxynivalenol (DON), commonly known as vomitoxin, is a trichothecene mycotoxin produced by several fungal species, such as Fusarium, Myrothecium, Cephalosporium, Verticimonosporium, and Stachybotrys [1]
At 2, 3 and 4 wk, supplementation of diet with Mycofix Select resulted in higher body weight (BW) (P,0.05) compared with birds fed basal diet contaminated with DON (Table 2)
As well as body weight gain (BWG) was significantly higher (P,0.05) for Mycofix group at wk 3 and 4 compared with birds fed diet contaminated with DON (Table 2)

Summary

Introduction

Deoxynivalenol (DON), commonly known as vomitoxin, is a trichothecene mycotoxin produced by several fungal species, such as Fusarium, Myrothecium, Cephalosporium, Verticimonosporium, and Stachybotrys [1]. It is known that poultry in modern production have to deal with several stressors during their life such as weighing, vaccination and a lot of environmental and management procedures. These factors can affect the behavioural, physiological, and performance responses of birds. Among these factors are nutritional, climatic, social and biological conditions [14,15,16,17] These external factors are considered stressors, led to higher plasma corticosterone levels and inducing a state of stress response. Higher plasma corticosterone was responsible for many metabolic and physiological problems and modulated the immunological functions [14,17,19,20] which in turn can have a significant effects on growth and health of birds during production [21]

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