High concentrations of micotoxins in raw materials, mainly in corn used in poultry rations of food, is an important subject of study due to hazardous problems not only to the animals themselves but also to the producer and to the poultry industry due to the reduction of performance by aflatoxins. Taking into account the lack of efficient tecnique for its elimination, from the feed, an adsorbent was added to the diets in order to reduce the effects of aflatoxins. Nine hundred sixty day old Cobb chicks, distributed in 8 replicates of 20 birds per pen the following treatments: T1=No aflatoxin; T2=3mg kg-1 of aflatoxin; T3=no aflatoxin+0.5% of bentonite; T4=3mg kg-1 of aflatoxin+0,1% of bentonite;T5=3mg kg-1 of aflatoxin+0.3% bentonite and T6=3mg kg-1 aflatoxin+ 0.5% of bentonite. Feed intake, body weight and feed conversion were depressed by aflatoxin in the feed. The addition of bentonite to the feed without aflatoxin did not caused negative effecs to the broilers. In treatments carried out with 3mg kg-1 of aflatoxins, the addition of the adsorbent promoted a better performance of the broilers with best results for those receiving 0.3% of bentonite.
aflatoxins; bentonite; adsorbent; broilers
