Abstract:
The study was carried out to determine the effect of three single adsorbents on mycotoxin-contaminated feed in arbor acre broilers. Specifically, the study determined the effect of three single adsorbents on mycotoxin-contaminated feed on feed intake, weight gain, proximate composition, hematology and histopathology in arbor acre broilers. The study adopted an experimental research design and was guided by six research questions and two hypotheses. The experiment was conducted in the Agricultural Education Poultry farm, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The population of the study was 100 day old chicks from Agrited farm, Ibadan, Nigeria. A sample size of 80 birds were randomly selected and distributed into five groups: Positive control (contaminated and untreated) (P0), negative control ( fresh feeds)(N0), T1(cont+ saccharamyces cerevisae), T2(cont+bentonite) and T3( cont+kaolin). Each group had four replicates with 4 birds each giving a total of 16 birds in each group.16 bags of top finisher were wetted and left to be contaminated, after a period of three weeks, the feed were divided into four equal parts, one part was treated with saccharamyces cerevisae, the second with bentonite ,and the third treated with kaolin while the fourth was left untreated. The contaminated feed was subjected to laboratory analysis to determine the mycotoxin present in the feed and also proximate composition analysis. At the end of eight weeks, data on feed intake, weight gain, hematology and histopathology was taken. Data collected was analyzed using mean and ANOVA. The mean was used to answer research questions 2-6 while ANOVA was used to test the hypotheses. The results of the findings showed that negative control group( fresh feed) had the highest weight gain (1.87kg) followed by T1(cont+saccharomyces cerevisae) with a weight of 1.21kg. Negative control group had the highest feed intake of 0.75kg followed by T2 (cont+bentonite) with 0.68kg. Kaolin had more effect on the hematology of the birds while all the adsorbents had less significant effect on the histology of the birds. Based on the results, it was concluded that each adsorbents had a different effect on the mycotoxins present in the feed as seen in the birds, specifically bentonite improved feed intake, saccharamyces cerevisae improved weight gain and kaolin improved blood. It is recommended that adsorbents are effective in the treatment of mycotoxin contamination in feed and also a mixture of more than one adsorbent will be more effective.
