Wholesomeness and Safety of Meat of Laying Hens Fed Irradiated Aflatoxin B1-contaminated Diet

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Food irradiation Department, National Center for Radiation Research and Technology (NCRRT), Atomic Energy

2 Animal Production Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt

3 Food irradiation Department, National Center for Radiation Research and Technology, Atomic Energy Authority

4 Hormones Unit, Chemistry Department, Animal Health Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

THE AIM of this study is to evaluate the effect of gamma (γ) radiations on the safety of processed diets to eliminate the negative effects of aflatoxin-B1 (AFB1) on the health of consumers. One hundred fifty adult female Westar rats were used. The rats were divided into 5 experimental groups (G). G1; rats served as a control which were fed a meal of flesh (breast and thigh muscles) and organs (liver, kidney, spleen and heart) of laying hens that fed before slaughtering diet non-contaminated with AFB1. G2; the rats were fed flesh of laying hens fed before slaughtering contaminated diet with 0.2mg AFB1kg−1, G3, G4 and G5 rats were fed flesh and organs of slaughtered laying hens fed before being slaughtered contaminated diet with 0.2mg AFB1 and treated with γ-irradiation at 10, 20 and 30kGy, respectively. The feeding continued for 3 weeks (experimental duration), then followed by another 3 weeks period on commercial non-contaminated ration (recovery duration). The obtained results showed that the feed intake, live body weight, blood total protein, albumin, and globulin were significantly decreased (P≤0.05) in rats of G2 during the experimental duration compared to G1. However, an improvement was observed in all parameters for rats of G3, G4 and G5. This improvement was parallel with increasing the dose levels of γ-ray (at 10, 20 and 30kGy), respectively. On the other hand, G2 showed an increase in the relative organ weights and AFB1 residues in breast tissues and organs including (liver, kidneys, spleen and heart), creatinine, liver function including aspertate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). The experimental regimes for rats of G3, G4 and G5 were effective at reducing the deleterious effect of AFB1 on residues in breast tissues and organs. They normalized the relative organ weights as a function of radiation doses. Moreover, an improvement in serum liver enzymes, thyroid hormones and sexual hormones occurred, which reflects their effects on metabolism and reproductive efficiency of rats and this improvement was proportional with increasing the radiation doses up to 30kGy. It could be concluded that the radiation processing (at the applied radiation doses) of contaminated diet with AFB1 has significantly improved all parameters (P<0.05) which were negatively affected by AFs. Also, improvements were noticed in G3 and G4. A greater amelioration was obtained for group G5 followed a recovery phase.

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