Evaluation of Effectiveness of a Novel Multicomponent Mycotoxins Detoxification Agent in the Presence of AFB1 and T-2 Toxin on Broiler Chicks.

This experimental study was conducted to determine the ability of a novel mycotoxins detoxification agent (MR) at a concentration of 0.2% to reduce the toxicity of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) or T-2 toxin, alone or in combination, and to examine its effect on performance, pathohistological changes (PH) and the residue of these toxins in the tissues of broiler chicks. A total of 96 broiler chicks were divided into eight equal groups: group C, which served as control (without any additives); group MR, which received the novel detoxification agent (supplemented with 0.2%); group E-I (0.1 mg AFB1/kg of diet); group E-II (0.1 mg AFB1/kg of diet + MR 0.2%); group E-III (0.5 mg T-2 toxin/kg of diet); group E-IV (0.5 mg T-2 toxin/kg of diet + 0.2% MR); group E-V (combination of 0.1 mg AFB1/kg, 0.5 mg T-2 toxin/kg of diet); and group E-VI (combination of 0.1 mg AFB1/kg, 0.5 mg T-2 toxin + 0.2% MR). Results indicate that feeds containing AFB1 and T-2 toxin, alone or in combination, adversely affected the health and performance of poultry. However, the addition of MR to diets containing AFB1 and T-2 toxin singly and in combination exerted a positive effect on body weight, feed intake, weight gain, feed efficiency and microscopic lesions in visceral organs. Residual concentration of AFB1 in liver samples was significantly (p < 0.05) decreased when chicks were fed diets supplemented with 0.2% of MR.

Influence of apple pomace inclusion on the process of animal feed pelleting.

Apple pomace (AP) is the main by-product of apple juice production. Large amounts of this material disposed into landfills can cause serious environmental problems. One of the solutions is to utilise AP as animal feed. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of dried AP inclusion into model mixtures made from conventional feedstuffs on pellet quality and pellet press performance. Three model mixtures, with different ratios of maize, sunflower meal and AP, were pelleted. Response surface methodology (RSM) was applied when designing the experiment. The simultaneous and interactive effects of apple pomace share (APS) in the mixtures, die thickness (DT) of the pellet press and initial moisture content of the mixtures (M), on pellet quality and production parameters were investigated. Principal component analysis (PCA) and standard score (SS) analysis were applied for comprehensive analysis of the experimental data. The increase in APS led to an improvement of pellet quality parameters: pellet durability index (PDI), hardness (H) and proportion of fines in pellets. The increase in DT and M resulted in pellet quality improvement. The increase in DT and APS resulted in higher energy consumption of the pellet press. APS was the most influential variable for PDI and H calculation, while APS and DT were the most influential variables in the calculation of pellet press energy consumption. PCA showed that the first two principal components could be considered sufficient for data representation. In conclusion, addition of dried AP to feed model mixtures significantly improved the quality of the pellets.

Free asparagine and sugars profile of cereal species: the potential of cereals for acrylamide formation in foods.

Cereals-based food is one of the major source of Maillard reaction products in the diet. Free amino acids and reducing sugars are considered to be the main precursors in the formation of these heat-induced compounds. In order to determine genetic resources with reduced potential for acrylamide formation, the content of sugars as well as free asparagine were analysed in a total of 30 cultivars of 10 varieties belonging to eight species (Triticum aestivum var. lutescens, T. aestivum var. alba, T. aestivum var. compactum, T. durum, T. spelta, T. dicoccum, Secale cereale, Hordeum vulgare var. nudum, Avena sativa var. nudum, and Zea mays var. indentata) grown at the same location in the 2015 growing season. Our results provide evidence of differences in the content of sugars and asparagine between and within species of small grain cereals and maize. The highest content of glucose, fructose and asparagine was found in cultivars of rye and hull-less oat. All maize varieties examined contained significantly higher amounts of non-reducing and total sugars (on average 1.25% and 2.36%, respectively) than small cereal grain species. Principal component analysis showed a high positive correlation between monoreducing sugars and asparagine in bread wheat, durum wheat and hull-less barley.