Biological Control of Aflatoxin on Egg Production Performance of Laying Hens

Abstract

The deleterious effects of aflatoxin have been well documented in the literature on livestock and animal products. Although toxin binders and some methods of mitigating aflatoxin has been proven to illicit a positive response, but the effectiveness of biocontrol method of mitigation on the laying performance, egg production and characteristics have not been fully documented. Therefore, effect of aflatoxin bio-control method (Aflasafe) on growth indices, egg production and characteristics of laying chicken (LC) were investigated in this study. 700 point-of-lay Bovan Nera (LC) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments: Aflasafe maize-based diet (AMBD), Farm Feed with toxin binder (FF+toxin binder), aflatoxin-contaminated diet with toxin binder (ACDTB) and aflatoxin-contaminated diet without toxin binder (ACDWTB). The contaminated diets contained 306.3ppb aflatoxin and the experimental design was completely randomised with 4 treatments (n=175) and 5 replicates (n=35) per treatment for 14 weeks. Daily feed intake (DFI), Average egg weight (AEW), Average egg width (AEWd), Albumen length (AL) were determined using standard procedures. The DFI (g) of LC on ACDTB (113.54) and ACDWTB (115.13) was significantly lower than AMBD (124.66) and FF+toxin binder (129.06). The AMBD (1.45 g) significantly enhanced the AYD than other treatments. Aflasafe maize-based diet enhanced, egg characteristics in laying chicken. It also improved egg quality in laying chickens without adverse effect on the production. The use of aflasafe maize grain in poultry diet is recommended.