The impact of deoxynivalenol contaminated diet on performance, immune response, intestine morphology and jejunal gene expression in broiler chicken

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of deoxynivalenol (DON) contaminated diet on performance, immune system, gut morphology and jejunal gene expression in broiler chickens. Eighty-one-day old chicks were randomly allotted into two treatments with 4 replicates (10 birds in each replication). Experimental diets were the control diet (maize-soybean meal) and an experimentally contaminated diet with 10 mg/kg DON. The results indicated that DON-challenged birds had decreased (P 0.05) average feed intake (AFI) during starter period as compared to control group. Also, average daily gain (ADG), AFI and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were not affected (P 0.05) by DON consumption, but toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) and claudin-5 (CLDN-5) expressions were not affected (P 0.05) by dietary treatments. In conclusion, although DON could not influence the performance attributes in broiler chickens, it adversely affected the immune response, muc-2 gene expressions in the jejunum and gut morphology, enhanced the liver enzyme indices and lessened the blood protein contents. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of deoxynivalenol (DON) contaminated diet on performance, immune system, gut morphology and jejunal gene expression in broiler chickens. Eighty-one-day old chicks were randomly allotted into two treatments with 4 replicates (10 birds in each replication). Experimental diets were the control diet (maize-soybean meal) and an experimentally contaminated diet with 10 mg/kg DON. The results indicated that DON-challenged birds had decreased (P 0.05) average feed intake (AFI) during starter period as compared to control group. Also, average daily gain (ADG), AFI and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were not affected (P 0.05) by DON consumption, but toll-like receptor-4 (TLR-4) and claudin-5 (CLDN-5) expressions were not affected (P 0.05) by dietary treatments. In conclusion, although DON could not influence the performance attributes in broiler chickens, it adversely affected the immune response, muc-2 gene expressions in the jejunum and gut morphology, enhanced the liver enzyme indices and lessened the blood protein contents.

Automated summary

The study aimed to investigate the impact of deoxynivalenol (DON) contaminated diet on broiler chickens. While DON did not significantly affect performance-related indicators, it did have adverse effects on immune response, muc-2 gene expression in the jejunum, gut morphology, liver enzyme levels, and blood protein contents.