文摘
A total of 216 23-week-old laying hens from two different genetic backgrounds (half of the birds were Lohmann brown [LB] and [LSL] hens, respectively) and 24 adult roosters were assigned to a feeding trial to study the effect of increasing concentrations of deoxynivalenol (DON) in the diet (0, 5, 10?mg/kg) on the reproductive performance of hens and roosters, and the health of the newly hatched chicks. Hatchability was adversely affected by the presence of DON in LB hens-diet, while the hatchability of the LSL chicks was significantly higher than LB chicks. An interaction effect between DON in the hens-diet and the breed was noticed on fertility, as the fertility was decreased in the eggs of LB hens receiving 10?mg/kg DON in their diet and increased in the eggs of LSL hens fed 10?mg/kg DON. Moreover, spleen relative weight was significantly decreased in the chicks hatched from eggs of hens fed contaminated diets, while gizzard relative weight was significantly decreased in LB chicks with 10?mg/kg DON in their diet compared with the control group. On the other hand, the chicks-haematology and organ histopathology were not affected by the dietary treatment. Additionally, the presence of DON in the roosters-diet had no effect on fertility (the percentage of fertile eggs of all laid eggs). Consequently, the current results indicate a negative impact of DON in LB hens-diet on fertility and hatchability, indicating that the breed of the hens seems to be an additional factor influencing the effect of DON on reproductive performance of the laying hens.