PERFORMANCE OF LAYING HENS FED FUMONISIN B1 INOCULATED MAIZE WITH OR WITHOUT VITAMIN C SUPPLEMENTATION

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to determine the effect of Fumonisin B1 inoculated maize with or without vitamin C on a batch of one hundred and five (105) point of laying hens (Isa Brown). The hens were arranged in a 2 x 4 factorial in a completely randomized design. Diets were formulated to contain various proportion of corn contaminated with known levels of Fumonisin B1 i.e. Treatment A served as the control (with no Fumonisin and vitamin C), Treatment B (10 mg/kg feed of Fumonisin B1), Treatment C (20 mg/kg feed of Fumonisin B1), Treatment D (30 mg/kg feed of Fumonisin B1), Treatment E (10 mg/kg feed of Fumonisin B1+ 0.02 mg/kg feed of Vitamin C), Treatment F (20 mg/kg feed of Fumonisin B1+ 0.02 mg/kg feed of Vitamin C), and Treatment G (30 mg/kg feed of Fumonisin B1+ 0.02 mg/kg feed of Vitamin C) for 8 weeks. Fifteen hens were assigned to each treatment replicated three times with five hens per replicate. Three cocks allocated to each treatment were used for semen collection for insemination of the hens. Parameters such as initial body weight, final body weight, total weight gain, daily weight gain, total feed intake, and daily feed intake were measured. Eggs were collected for egg quality determination. Blood was collected during slaughtering of the birds for haematological and biochemical indices. The slaughtered birds were eviscerated for gross examination of organs in situ which were excised and weighed. All the eggs collected from day three (3) after artificial insemination for a period of seven days were incubated to monitor the development of resulting embryos at 7 and 14 days. The results of the study showed that inclusion of Fumonisin B1 in the diet had significant (P<0.05) influence on the total and daily feed intake with 30 mg/kg having the highest values of 6872.51 and 122.72 g respectively, and least feed conversion ratio observed in the control (1.84). Eosinophils were significantly (P>0.05) reduced by Fumonisin but still within the range value of 0.67 – 2.07 x 103/mm3, but this parameter was significantly (P<0.05) influenced by vitamin C treatment (1.57 x 103/mm3). Mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration was negatively influenced by the interaction 20 mg/kg Fumonisin B1 with vitamin C (34.33 %) as the value was outside the range value (20.0 – 34.0 %) for chickens. Aspartate transaminase and alkaline phosphatase experienced negative influence as these biochemicals were not within the range values (88.0 – 208 and 24.5 – 44.4 iu/l respectively) as a result of the interaction of Fumonisin B1 with or without vitamin C. Despite increasing shell weight, Fumonisin B1 significantly (P<0.05) reduced yolk diameter, albumen height and haugh unit resulting in eggs with lower quality. Embryonic development was observed to be normal when compared with the control. This study, therefore, demonstrated that dietary Fumonisin B1 concentration above 20 mg/kg is a potential health risk that may induce adverse physiological response. Likewise, Vitamin C supplementation effectively ameliorated the toxic effect of the Fumonisin B1 on all the parameters examined.