Efficacy of a commercial supplement added to drinking water in broilers fed aflatoxin-contaminated diets
The objective of the experiment was to evaluate effects of water supplementation with a commercial supplement (VitalSea®) on growth performance, mortality and serum concentrations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) in broilers fed diets with aflatoxin (AF) contamination. A total of 960 day-old mixed-sex chicks (Ross 308, initial BW: 46.28 ± 0.25 g/chick) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatments. The treatments included (1) basal diet without AF contamination and supplementation (negative control, NC), (2) AF-contaminated diet without supplementation (positive control, PC), (3) AF-contaminated diet + water supplementation with 0.5 mL VitalSea®/10 kg BW (VitalSea 1) and (4) AF-contaminated diet + water supplementation with 1.0 mL VitalSea®/10 kg BW (VitalSea 2). Each treatment was replicated with 8 pens of 30 birds (50% male, 50% female) each. Contaminated diets containing 30 μg AF/kg were fed to birds for Phase 1 (d 1-21) only. Water supplemented with VitalSea® was administered to birds for 5 days (d 22-26). In Phase 1 (d 1-21), there were no differences in ADG and ADFI among treatments (P > 0.05). In Phase 2 (d 22-35), there was a trend that the ADG of VitalSea 1 (68.66 g/d) and VitalSea 2 (68.56 g/d) was higher (P < 0.06) than that of the PC (62.61 g/d). Water supplemented with VitalSea® improved the FCR of broilers compared with the PC (P < 0.01). Over a 5-week study, broilers of the PC had a worse FCR than those of the other treatments (P < 0.01). At d 21, the serum LDH concentration of the PC was higher than that of the NC (P = 0.026). Briefly, addition of VitalSea® to drinking water for 5 days improved growth rate and feed efficiency of broilers fed AF-contaminated diets.