Efficacy of esterified glucomannan to counteract mycotoxicosis in naturally contaminated feed on performance and serum biochemical and hematological parameters in broilers

A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of esterified glucomannan in counteracting the toxic effects of mycotoxins in naturally contaminated diet (aflatoxin 168 ppb, ochratoxin 8.4 ppb, zearalenone 54 ppb, and T-2 toxin 32 ppb) fed to commercial broilers. One-day-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to one of the four dietary treatments with five replicates of 14 chicks each. Four dietary treatments were 1) control; 2) esterified glucomannan, an adsorbent, tested at 0.05% of diet; 3) naturally contaminated diet; and 4) esterified glucomannan (0.05%) plus naturally contaminated diet. Body weight, feed consumption, feed efficiency, hematology, and serum biochemical and enzyme activities were evaluated. Compared with the control, the naturally contaminated diet significantly decreased body weight and feed consumption and resulted in poor feed efficiency. Esterified glucomannan effectively alleviated the growth depression caused by the naturally contaminated diet. Increased relative weights of liver and gizzard were observed in chicks fed the naturally contaminated diet. Further, feeding a naturally contaminated diet was associated with significant decreases in urea nitrogen and hematocrit values along with altered gamma-glutamyl transferase activity; however, urea nitrogen concentration was improved with addition of esterified glucomannan. These findings suggest that addition of dietary esterified glucomannan is effective in counteracting the toxic effects of naturally contaminated feed with mycotoxins.