Effects of feeding deoxynivalenol (DON, vomitoxin)-contaminated wheat to female White Leghorn chickens from day old through egg production.
White Leghorn chickens one day of age were fed starter and grower diets containing either a control (noncontaminated) wheat diet or a naturally contaminated deoxynivalenol (DON) wheat diet (18 mg DON/kg) from 1 day of age to the onset of egg production. The hens were then placed on their respective layer diets of control wheat or DON-contaminated wheat (18 mg DON/kg) for six 28-day egg production periods. Feeding the DON-contaminated diet did not significantly influence body weights during the growing or the laying phases. Overall, hen-day egg production and egg weights were significantly higher for hens receiving the DON diet. Feeding DON contaminated wheat caused no significant changes in percent shell, albumen height, percent fertility, percent hatch of fertile eggs, percent hatch of eggs set, or weight of chicks at hatch. There were slight, although significant, changes in shell weight and shell thickness and in some serum chemistry values. There were no significant differences in the hematology parameters measured or in prothrombin times. None of the eggs collected from hens fed the control and the DON-contaminated wheat diet contained detectable quantities of DON. Microscopic examination of sections of the liver, kidney, and proventriculus of control and treated hens revealed no unusual histopathology. The results indicate that feeding DON at relatively high levels beginning at 1 day of age and continuing through six egg production periods had only slight effects on the parameters measured.
US Department of Agriculture, Veterinary Toxicology and Entomology Research Laboratory, College Station, Texas 77841.
L F
LF
Kubena
R B
RB
Harvey
D E
DE
Corrier
W E
WE
Huff
D000821:Animal Feed / Q000633:toxicity; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005506:Food Contamination; D010058:Oviposition / Q000187:drug effects*; D012717:Sesquiterpenes / Q000633:toxicity*; D014255:Trichothecenes / Q000633:toxicity*; D014908:Triticum / Q000633:toxicity
D012717:Sesquiterpenes; D014255:Trichothecenes; C007262:deoxynivalenol