Biochemical and physiological responses of growing chickens and ducklings to dietary aflatoxins.

Two-week-old ducks and chickens were fed for a 14-day period diets containing either groundnut meal (GNM) or fish meal (FM) contaminated with the following aflatoxin (AF) levels: 0, 50, 100, 200 and 400 micrograms AF B1 equivalent per kg ration; nitrogen and energy balances were measured, liver lesions assessed, and various biochemical analyses in blood, livers and muscles were made. Both ducks and chickens fed diets containing GNM were more affected by dietary AF than those fed diets with FM. In ducks, in addition to the reduction in growth and utilization of protein, dietary AF caused liver damage and significantly affected most of the blood constituents; chickens were either not affected or affected to a lesser degree, but no liver damage was recorded. Individual blood tests or enzyme ratios did not provide a sufficiently precise diagnosis of aflatoxicosis. However, blood clotting time and De Riti's ratio, when used in a multivariate regression. allowed projection of a degree of liver damage caused by AF in ducks fed GNM diet with 83.6% of variance being accounted for.