Protective effects of various feed additives on broiler chickens exposed to mycotoxin- contaminated feed: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Mycotoxin contamination in feed a common problem in broiler chickens. The present systematic review and meta-analysis examined the impact of mycotoxin and efficacy of various feed additives on production performance of broiler chickens fed mycotoxin-contaminated diets (MCD). A total of 28 studies comprising 45 mycotoxin-challenged experiments were selected following PRISMA guidelines. Feed additives included in the analyses were commercial mycotoxin binder (CMB), mycotoxin binder (MB), mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS), organic acid (OA), probiotics (PRO), protein supplementation (PROT), phytobiotics (PHY), additive mixture (MIX), and a combination of CMB + other feed additives (CMB+). Random effects model and a frequentist network meta-analysis (NMA) were performed to rank the efficacy of feed additives, reported as standardized means difference (SMD) at 95% confidence intervals (95% CI). Overall, broiler chickens fed MCD had significantly lower final BW (SMD = 198; 95% CI = 198 to 238) and higher FCR (SMD = 0.17; 95% CI = 0.13 to 0.21). Treatments with MB, MOS, PHY, and MIX improved BW of birds fed MCD (P < 0.05) but lower compared to CON (P < 0.05). The NMA demonstrated that the CMB + was the highest performing additive (P-score = 0.791) to remedy mycotoxicosis. The MOS, MB, and OA also showed high efficacy based. Adverse effects on organ weights were observed on the increase of liver and heart and the decrease of intestinal tract (P < 0.001). Altogether, several feed additives may help to ameliorate mycotoxicosis in broiler chickens although the efficacy was low pertaining to the severity of the mycotoxicosis.