Effect of Fusarium toxin contaminated wheat on health, nutrient digestibility and semen quality of adult cockerels

Abstract

A ten-month-feeding trial was conducted with twenty four adult cockerels of a commercial strain “New Hampshire hybrids” to evaluate the effect of feeding of wheat, mainly contaminated with the Fusarium toxin deoxynivalenol, on cockerel’s health, nutrient digestibility, semen quality and DON metabolism. Birds were individually weighed and randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups (control, 4.7 mg DON/kg and 11 mg DON/kg). Feed intake and cockerels’ body weight were not affected by the dietary treatment, nor were the relative organ weights affected. On the other hand, breast muscle relative weight was increased in the cockerels fed DON contaminated diets, while the relative weight of ileum and caecum were significantly decreased at the same time. The content of urea was significantly increased in plasma of cockerels fed the highest DON concentrations, while the triglyceride concentration was significantly lower in plasma of cockerels fed 4.7 mg/kg DON. Haematological and other clinical-chemical parameters remained unaffected. Moreover, crude fat utilization was progressively increased as the concentrations of DON in the diet increased. Utilizations of organic matter, carbohydrates and nitrogen balance were not affected by the dietary treatment. Furthermore, the long term feeding of cockerels with DON contaminated wheat had no negative impact on semen parameters. Taken together, it might be concluded that cockerels are quite resistant to the effects of DON regarding reproductive traits, nutrient digestibility and feed intake. The dose-dependent alterations in the relative weights of breast muscle and digestive organs require further consideration.