Effects of Adding of Two Commercial Absorbent Materials and Natural Zeolite to the Diets Contaminated with Aflatoxin B1 on Broiler Performance and their

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of adding of two commercial absorbent products in feeds and to compare the results with the effect of adding of natural zeolite in reducing the adverse effects of aflatoxin B1 on broiler growth, performance and immune system. In this study, 200 one day old Arian 386 broiler chickens were used in a completely randomized design with 5 treatments, 4 replications and 10 chicks per each treatment. Experimental groups were as follows: negative control fed basal diet; positive control fed basal diet plus 1 mg aflatoxin B1 kg-1 diet; and three other groups fed 25g/kg Milbond-TX, Polysorb and Zeolite with 1 mg/kg aflatoxin B1, respectively. Feed intake did not significantly differ between the groups. The body weight gain and feed conversion ratio of birds fed contaminated diets were significantly decreased and increased, respectively but adding of the absorbent materials to contaminated feed caused a significant improvement in body weight gain and feed conversion. Among the internal organs, the spleen relative weights increased by consumption of aflatoxin B1contaminated feed. Aflatoxin B1 use without absorbent materials significantly decreased antibody production against Newcastle disease vaccine in 21 day. In addition, produced antibodies against sheep red blood cells in 35 day of age in birds fed aflatoxin B1 contaminated diets were reduced. The results of this study showed that the adding of natural zeolite and commercial absorbents in feeds contaminated with aflatoxin B1 causes improved performance and immune system compared with the group that received the aflatoxin B1 alone.