Abstract:
Broiler chicken farming is a major sector of the poultry industry. Poultry is susceptible to mycotoxicoses caused by aflatoxins. The experiment was carried out, where 144 DOCs were allocated to six diets. The diets were diet1 (no aflatoxin and not fermented), diet2 (no aflatoxin and fermented without yeast), diet3 (no aflatoxin and fermented with yeast), diet4 (contained aflatoxin and not fermented), diet5 (contained aflatoxin and fermented without yeast) and diet6 (contained aflatoxin fermented with yeast). The aflatoxin level was 30.08 ppb. Each diet was assigned to 6 chicks, replicated 4 times for 21 days. Leftovers and mortalities were recorded daily and chicks were weighed on a weekly basis. Feed consumption and body weight gain were not different across treatments. However, gain to feed ratio was significantly (p=0.048) better in broilers fed diets fermented naturally. The mortality rate was 75.0% in chicks fed on a non-fermented aflatoxin diet. Therefore, natural fermentation is the best method of improving the quality of aflatoxin contaminated feed for broilers.
