Effect of Kombucha in aflatoxin-contaminated diets on growth performance, antioxidant status and liver function of broiler chicken

The liver is a major organ that processes mycotoxins, detoxifies them and protects the body against their toxic effects. AFB1 can cause unbalanced fat metabolism, increase lipid deposition in the liver, and suppress the activity of antioxidant enzymes and anti-inflammatory cytokines. Kambucha can have liver protective effects due to its antioxidant compounds, yeasts and acid-producing bacteria. 320 male Ross-308 broilers to evaluate the effect of Kambucha on reducing the degree of aflatoxin toxicity in 2 4 4 factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design using 8 treatments, four replications and 10 broilers Used in each replication. The first factor was the amount of aflatoxin in the diet at two levels of zero and 2.5 mg/kg of diet and the second factor was kambucha at four levels of zero, 5, 10 and 15 ml per 100 ml of drinking water. Aflatoxin significantly reduced daily weight gain, feed intake and production efficiency index during the initial, growth, final and overall periods (P˂0.05). During the growth and final period of level 10, kambucha had more daily weight gain compared to other treatments. The use of levels 5, 10 and 15 of kambucha compared to level zero showed a significant decrease in feed consumption (P˂0.05). The use of kombucha, aflatoxins and their interaction had no significant effect on feed conversion ratio (P˃0.05). Kambucha had no significant effect on production efficiency index (P˃0.05). Aflatoxin caused a significant increase in liver weight and fat percentage in broilers (P˂0.05). Kambucha had no significant effect on liver weight and fat percentage (P˃0.05). Aflatoxin significantly increased aspartate-aminotransferase levels and decreased serum alkaline phosphatase (P˂0.05) but had no effect on alanine-aminotransferase levels. Although the use of 15 kambucha had the lowest level of alanine-aminotransferase, it was not significantly different from the level of zero. The use of aflatoxin in the diet significantly increased the level of glutathione-peroxidase and different levels of kambucha significantly reduced the level of serum glutathione-peroxidase (P˂0.05). According to the results, the use of Kambucha at levels of 5, 10 and ml per 100 ml of drinking water can be effective in reducing the negative effects of aflatoxin in the diet.