Alleviation of aflatoxin-B1 toxicity by using clay adsorbent in nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) diets

The present study was designed to alleviate the aflatoxin-b1 toxicity by the use of 0.5% calcium bentonite clay and to evaluate its effect on the growth performance of nile tilapia over a period of 10 weeks. inclusion of afb1 at both 2 and 4 ppm levels signifcantly (p<0.05) decreased specifc growth rate (sgr),net weight gain (nwg),average daily gain (adg),survival,feed intake,feed effciency ratio (fer) and protein effciency ratio (pre),irrespective the addition of the 4tx in the diets. among different dietary groups of the fsh,% survival was not affected signifcantly (p<0.05). t1 showed maximum nwg (45.49±3.85),fer (0.739±0.02) and per (36.36±1.83) when compared to other dietary treatment groups. the addition of 4tx clay in the diets at both 2 and 4 ppm afb1 concentrations have almost the same effect on the growth parameters tested except in the case of per. t3 (0.5% 4tx+2 ppm afb1) showed better per (31.42±1.74) when compared to t4 (0.5% 4tx+ 4 ppm afb1) group (27.76±0.67). interaction between different growth parameters of tilapia fed afb1 and 4tx supplemented diets showed that net weight gain (nwg) was signifcantly (p<0.01) correlated with average daily gain (adg),specifc growth rate (sgr),feed intake (fi) and protein effciency ratio (per). in conclusion,aflatoxin-b1 negatively impacted the growth performance of nile tilapia regardless the addition of the 4tx clay. addition of 4tx in the diets has signifcant effect on some of the parameters tested. © 2017 zoological society of pakistan.