EVALUATION OF THE EFFICACY OF LIQUORICE EXTRACT AND SACCHAROMYCES CEREVISIAE TO SUPPRESS THE TOXIC EFFECTS OF AFLATOXIN IN BROILERS

Abstract

ABSTRACT
The amelioration of aflatoxicosis in broilers was examined by the dietary addition of mold killer, Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast, or liquorice extract. A total of 750 Fawbro broiler chicks, three weeks old were randomly divided into 5 treatment groups (control; Tl, Afiatoxin (AF); T2, AF+mold killer; T3, AF+yeast; T4 and AF+liquorice extract; T5) each consisting of ISO chicks. The various parameters studied were: Live body weight (BW), weight gain (WG), feed consumption (FC), feed conversion ratio (FCR), mortality (M), Productive Index (PI), Economic Figure (EF), dressing percentage with (DPV) or without viscera (DPWV), and relative weights of liver (L), heart (H), gizzard (G), spleen (S) and abdominal fat (AFT). Compared to control group (Tl), AF treatment (T2) significantly (p<0.05) decreased BW, WG, FC, FCR, PI, EF, DPV and DPWV; and increased (p<0.05) M, L, S and AFT. The addition of mold killer (T3), yeast (T4) or liquorice extract (T5) to an AF containing diet significantly (p<0.05) improved the adverse effects of AF on these characteristics. However, liquorice extract (T5) surpasses all other treatments and restore the means of these productive characters to the control values.These results, as a conclusion, clearly demonstrated that liquorice extract (450 mg/kg of diet) is effective in preventing the deleterious effects of AF on broiler chickens.