Producer > Poultry
Q. 2. What are the symptoms of mycotoxicosis in your poultry?
(a) Common effects of mycotoxins
- Poor feed efficiency
- Reduced health
- Reduced weight gain
- Poor fertility
- Low egg production
- Poor hatchability
- Poor egg shell quality
- Tibial dyschondroplasia
- Embryonic mortality
- Mortality
- Vaccine failure
- Immunosuppression
- Poor feathering
- Listlessness
- Huddling
- Diarrhoea
- Tremors
- Lesions of the beak
- Liver/Kidney & bone disorders
- Kidney damage
Symptom: Lesions in the mouth
Economic impact of feed mycotoxins in poultry
- Poor performance
- Lost efficiency
- Increased downgrades
- Higher disease incidence
There is no 'safe' dose of mycotoxins. A doses that does not affect birds at short exposure could be toxic at longer consumption. Doses that may be safe under laboratory conditions can have detrimental effects on growth and reproduction under conditions of commercial poultry production.
Ducks are very sensitive to aflatoxins, even more than chickens. In fact, ducks are about 200 times more sensitive to aflatoxin than chicks and layers.
Poultry are generally considered to be less sensitive than pigs and are often the recipients of contaminated grains diverted from pig diets.
(c) Are poultry products contaminated when poultry consume mycotoxin contaminated feed?
Several mycotoxins have been shown to be deposited in meat and eggs and could subsequently create health problems in humans.
