Abstract
Abstract. A study was conducted to investigate the capability of Myrtus communis essential oil (MCE) in counteracting the deleterious effects of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) on growth performance, serum biochemistry and humoral immune responses in broiler chickens. In a completely randomized design, 300 day-old male chicks were assigned to four treatments with five replicates of 15 birds for 42 days. Chickens, up to day 7 of age, were fed the same diet and then, they were fed the experimental diets. The dietary treatments were 1) the negative control (no dietary aflatoxin or MCE), 2) the positive control (diet containing AFB1 at 0.5 mg/kg, without MCE), 3) diet containing AFB1 at 0.5 mg/kg plus 500 mg/kg MCE, and 4) basal diet containing 500 mg/kg MCE, without AFB1. Growth performance was measured from day 7 to 42. Serum biochemical parameters, organ weights on day 42 and the antibody titers against Newcastle and influenza viruses on day 28 of age were determined. Addition of aflatoxin to diet decreased (P<0.05) the weight gain and feed intake and MCE supplementation diminished (P<0.05) the inhibitory effects of AFB1 on the growth performance. Addition of AFB1 to diet of chicks increased the serum activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alkaline aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), and decreased the antibody titers against Newcastle and influenza viruses. Addition of MCE to diet alleviated the negative effects of AFB1 on these parameters (P<0.05). In conclusion, our results showed that addition of MCE may reduce the adverse effects of AFB1 on broiler chickens.
Highlights
Aflatoxins are a group of mycotoxins produced by the strains of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus in the feedstuffs (Bennett & Klich 2003)
The lowest weight gain and feed intake and the highest feed conversion ratio (FCR) were found in the positive control group and the addition of MCE to contaminated diet improved these parameters compared with the positive control
The results of this study indicated that inclusion of aflatoxin at dose of 0.5 mg/kg in diet severely affected the performance of broiler chickens
Summary
Aflatoxins are a group of mycotoxins produced by the strains of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus in the feedstuffs (Bennett & Klich 2003). While there are a number of aflatoxins such as B1, B2, G1, G2, aflatoxin B1 is the most prevalent, and highly hepatotoxic and carcinogenic in both human and animals (Wild & Turner 2002, Williams et al 2004) These fungi infect crops such as corn, cottonseed, peanut, rice, soybean, tree nuts as well as products derived from them causing both important economic losses and health problems (Etcheverry et al 1999). The fungi invade grains/seeds at pre-harvest stage in the field, during post-harvest drying/curing and storage and produce aflatoxins. These aflatoxins are extremely durable under most conditions of storage, handling and processing of foods or feeds. Powders and extracts of many medicinal herbs have been reported to inhibit the growth of A. flavus and production of aflatoxin (Sandosskumar et al 2007, Krishnamurthy & Shashikala 2006)
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