Effect of contamination of diets with aflatoxins on growing ducks and chickens.

Growing Alabio ducks and White Leghorn chickens were used in a growth study in which diets containing either soybean meal (SBM), peanut meal (PNM) or fish meal (FM) as protein sources were contaminated with the fungus Aspergillus flavus providing the following aflatoxin levels: 0, 50, 100 and 200 micrograms aflatoxin B1 equivalent per kg ration. There were no differences in responses of growing ducks and chickens (at age of 28 days) to the various protein sources at the zero aflatoxin level. However diets contaminated with Aspergillus flavus and containing 50 micrograms/kg aflatoxin B1 equivalent or more significantly reduced body weight gain and utilisation of dietary protein in ducks as compared with chickens. The higher the aflatoxin content above 50 micrograms/kg the greater was the difference in performance between ducks and chickens. Dietary aflatoxins caused liver damage in ducks while no damage was recorded in chickens. Ducks fed diets containing SBM or PNM were more affected by the same concentration of aflatoxins than those fed diets with FM. When intensification of duck husbandry is envisaged, particularly in humid tropical regions, measures to avoid the deleterious ill effects of aflatoxins are needed.