Efecto tóxico de Acremonium zeae en pollos de engorda en iniciación

the objective os this work was to determine if acremonium zeae affects the develpment of chicks. the study was condducted at the colegio de postgraduados, campus montecillo, the state of mexico, from august to december, 2010. hatchlings were used for the experiment under a totallyrandom design with five diets (treatments) and five repetitions, each repetition with five chicks. the animals were fed for three weeks with each of the diets with different percentages of added oatmeal, contaminated with a. zeae, and mixed with corn to cover the nutritional requirements of chicken in initiation. the treatments were: t1, 0% contaminated oatmeal: 100% corn, (control); t2, 25% contaminated oatmeal: 75% corn; t3, 50% contaminated oatmeal: 50% corn; t4, 75% contaminated oatmeal: 25% corn; and, t5, 100% contaminated oatmeal: 0% corn. the chickens were measured for weight gain and food intake every seven days for three weeks. the statistical analysis shows that the negative effect on weight gain and food intake is more evident from the second week of feeding with a diet composition of minimum 50% oatmeal contaminated with the fungus.