Necessity of continuing of supplementation of non-nutritive feed additive during days 21-42 of age following 3 weeks of feeding aflatoxin to broiler chickens

The necessity of supplementation of non-nutritive feed additives (NNFA) at 2 g/kg diet of mannan oligosaccharides (MOS), hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate (HSCAS) and Lacobacillus acidophilus (Lac) to block the negative impacts of aflatoxin (AF) on broilers performance and physiological traits throughout the withdrawal period from days 21 to 42 of age following AF feeding during 1-21 days of age was studied herein. There were two main experimental groups during 1-21 days of age in which of two concentrations of AF were supplemented at 0 and 200 ppb, and four subgroups of NNFA within diet without AF supplementation (unsupplemented control, MOS, HSCAS and Lac, groups 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively) and with AF supplementation (unsupplemented control, MOS, HSCAS and Lac, groups 5, 6, 7 and 8, respectively), thereby there were eight experimental treatments. During 21-42 days of age period, 210 broilers chickens left from the first part of this study (1-21 days of age) were used for studying the residual effects of AF during days 21-42 of age after AF removal from the diet at day 21 of age. Each group supplemented with MOS, HSCAS or Lac during 1-21 days of age was divided into two subgroups during the recovery period (21-42 days of age). One subgroup continued to receive the same NNFA it had received during 1-21 days of age. The other received only the basal diet without AF and NNFA supplementation. The positive control group (group 1) that had received basal diet without AF supplementation during 1-21 days of age continued on the same treatment during 21-42 days of age. The negative control group (group 5) that had received AF alone during 1-21 days of age received the basal diet without AF supplementation during the recovery period. AF had a chronic negative effect on productive performance of broilers during the recovery period and this was further confirmed by increasing liver enzyme and histology of liver. MOS at 2 g/kg diet induced the best recovery in growth performance of AF groups and continued of MOS seems to be essential to block the carry over effect of AF during the withdrawal period. However, growth performance of the non-AF group supplemented with Lac was the best.