Effect of Dietary Aflatoxin on Certain Egg Production and Quality Parameters in White Leghorn Layers Galkate U.V.*, Rokde S.N.1 Department of Animal Nutrition, Nagpur Veterinary College (Dr. Panjabrao Deshmukh Krishi Vidyapeeth), Nagpur-440 006, India. *Reprint request: Dr. U.V. Galkate, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur-440 010, India, E-mail: uvgalkate@yahoo.co.in
1Present address: Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Central Institute for Cotton Research, Nagpur-440 010, India. Abstract The present investigation was carried out to investigate the effect of graded levels of aflatoxin AFB1 [@ 0.5(T1), 1.0 (T2), 2.0 (T3) and 0.0 (T4 - control)] incorporated in the basal diet of fifty two White Leghorn pullets on certain egg production and quality parameters. The result revealed that there was significant (P<0.05) decline in the egg weight, whereas, significant increase (P<0.05) in egg shell thickness in pullets given aflatoxin at all levels tested. The percent nitrogen retained was highest (52.89) in group T4 (control) as compared to T1 (51.30), T2 (49.86) and T3 (48.73). The differences in the egg production, egg mass, Haugh Unit, yolk index and albumin index of pullets in the four treatment groups were non- significant (P>0.05). It was concluded that inclusion of dietary AFB1 from 0 to 2.0 ppm resulted in lowered egg weight and nitrogen retention. There was significant increase in shell thickness. However, it had nonsignificant effect on egg production, egg mass, haugh unit, albumin index and yolk index. Top Key words Aflatoxin, Laying hens, Egg production, Egg quality, Nitrogen retention. Top |