µPoultry industry in Pakistan provides inexpensive meat for almost everybody, rich or poor. Poultry farming which once was a blooming business now faces many challenges. Although, infectious agents constitute a major challenge for this industry, mycotoxins are also considered a threat for poultry business worldwide. Mycotoxins, especially aflatoxins are very common in the feed stuff used in the assembly of poultry feeds. The ill-effects associated with aflatoxins are well documented. There are toxin binders marketed by various companies who trumpet various beneficial effects of using these products in poultry. The present project was undertaken to corroborate their claims and also to see whether the use of such products may not result in ill effects that might impact negatively on various production parameters of poultry.

Two commercial products (Mycotox® and Mycofix® Plus 3.0) were used to study their contribution on the immune response against ND, feed consumption, weight gain, feed conversion ratio and "lymphoid organ body weight ratio" in broiler chickens. Asp ergillus parasiticus was used for the production of the aflatoxin which was fed to various groups of birds.One hindered and eighteen day-old broiler were randomly divided into 6 groups viz. A, B, C, D,E and F each comprising 18 chicks. The chicks in each group were further randomly sub-divided into 3 replicates comprising of 6 chicks in each. Group A= Only Feed (Negative Control for AF),Group B= AF @150 µg/Kg of feed. (Positive Control for AF), Group C Mycotox® @ 1 gum/Kg 'feed (Positive Control for Mycotox®), Group D= Mycofix® Plus 3.0 @ 2.5gm/Kg of feed. (+ Control for Mycofix® Plus 3. Q), Group E= AF 1 50 µg/Kg and Mycotox® @ 1 gm/Kg of feed (Experimental Group for Mycotox®), Group F AF @ 150 µg/Kg and Mycofix® Plus 3.0 @2.5gm/kg of Feed (Experimental Group for Mycofix® Plus 3.0).

The rice powdered material containing AF was mixed according to the calculation to get desirable level of AF (150 µg/kg) in the feed. The birds were vaccinated against Newcastle Disease at the age of 6th days (Intra-ocular route) and then at 24th day (drinking water) and were d libitum. Effects of adding mycotoxin binders to feed containing 1 50ppb aflatoxin were in broiler chicks from 14 to 42 day of age. Compared to the B (positive control for aflatoxin) fed aflatoxin alone significantly reduced geometric mean titres, feed consumption, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio. However, no differences in GMT, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio were found between the chicks fed mycotoxin binders C (positive control for Mycotox®) and D (positive control for Mycofix® Plus 3.0) or mycotoxin binders plus aflatoxin treatment groups E (Experimental Group for Mycotox®), F (Experimental Group for !vlycofix® Plus 3.0) and the control group A (Negative control for Aflatoxin), indicating apparent protection against the deleterious effects caused by aflatoxins. Treatment related changes in organ body weight ratio of thymus, spleen and Bursa of fabricius were also observed. Most of the parameters measured for the birds fed mycotoxin binders did not alter. The addition of mycotoxin binders to aflatoxins contaminated feed diminished the adverse effects of aflatoxins on antibody titres against Newcastle and most relative organ weights. These findings suggested that mycotoxin binders can effectively reduce the toxicity of aflatoxin in broiler chicks and mycotoxin binders can be potential ameliorator against aflatoxicosis in broiler chicks.