Resumen

ARRIETA, Darwuin et al. Effect of Saccharomyces cerevisiae Culture and/or Selenium Intake on Broiler Exposed to Low Levels of Aflatoxin B1 in the Ration. 2:: Hepatic Morphology.. Rev. Cient. (Maracaibo) [online]. 2008, vol.18, n.1, pp.93-102. ISSN 0798-2259.

This trial was undertaken to determine the effects of 0.1% the yeast culture Saceharonyces cerevisiae¹⁰²⁶ (Sc) and/or 2mg/kg of selenium (Se) added to contaminated foodstuff with 0,07mg/kg (70 ppb) of aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁), on hepatic morphology of broiler chickens. 480 1-day-old male Hubbar x Hubbar chickens were chosen randomly to receive 8 sorts of diets for 42 days, each diet with 4 replicates of 15 chickens. Those diets corresponded to the fallowing treatments (T): T₁: control group receiving commercial food (CF) without detectable aflatoxin levels; T₂: CF + AFB₁; T₃: CF + Sc; T₄: CF + AFB₁ + Sc; T₅: CF + Se; T₆: CF +AFB₁ + Se; T₇: CF + Sc + Se; T₈: CF + AFB₁ + Sc + Se. Neither Sc or Se added to foodstuff alone or in combination with or without AFB1, caused macroscopic lesions in liver. A relative liver weight increase was observed in T₄ compared with T₁ and T₃ (P<0.05) and in chickens from T₅ and T₆ (P<0.01) compared with T₁. Treatments with Sc and/or Se were shown to have a significative higher frequency of hepatotoxic lesions compared with that of T₁. However, Sc + Se added together to AFB₁ contaminated food (T₈) diminished the hepatotoxic lesions’ severity grading compared to the hepatotoxcity grade found in T₄ and T₆. This result indicates an apparent synergistic effect of both additives as for diminishing hepatotoxicity caused by AFB₁-contaminated foodstuff Ingestion.

Palabras clave : Aflatoxin; yeasts; selenium; liver; broiler.