The Effect of Inclusion Levels of Vitamin E and C on Performance of Broiler Chicks Fed Aflatoxin Contaminated Diets

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of using two levels of vitamin E (vit.E) and C (vit.C) either alone or in combination as a feed additive to ameliorate the deleterious effects of Aflatoxin (AF) on broiler performance. A total of 280 one-day old un-sexed Ross broiler chicks were housed in batteries, randomly divided into ten experimental groups as follows: The first group (C) was fed on basal diet (Control), whereas, the rest groups were received the contaminated diet with AF at 1.2 ppm/kg diet where, C + : fed the contaminated diet, E100: fed the contaminated diet with 100 mg vit.E/kg diet (E1), E200: fed the contaminated diet with 200 mg vit.E/kg diet (E2), C250: fed the contaminated diet with 250 mg vit.C/kg diet (C1), C500: fed the contaminated diet with 500 mg vit.C/kg diet (C2), E100C250: fed the contaminated diet with E1 + C1, E100C500: fed the contaminated diet with E1 + C2, E200C250: fed the contaminated diet with E2 + C1 and E200C500: fed the contaminated diet with E2 + C2. The results indicated that, as expected, that C + group had significantly lower final body weight and total body weight gain; worse total feed conversion ratio and higher total mortality rate than those of the C group. On the other hand, birds which received contaminated diet with combination of vit.E and vit.C supplementation (E100C250, E100C500, E200C250 and E200C500) had significantly an improvement in productive performance as compared to those received contaminated diet (C +). Moreover, there were no significant differences in productive performance among the birds which received control diet and those fed the contaminated diet plus combination of vit.E and C addition. Therefore, it could be concluded that supplemental diets with the combination of vit.E and C can be used as antitoxin when the diet contaminated with aflatoxin.