Reduction of aflatoxins by Korean soybean paste and its effect on cytotoxicity and reproductive toxicity--Part 3. Inhibitory effects of Korean soybean paste (doen-jang) on aflatoxin toxicity in laying hens and aflatoxin accumulation in their eggs.

This study was conducted to determine the effects of Korean soybean paste (doen-jang [dwen-jahng]) (at concentrations of 0.5, 1, and 5%) on the toxicity of 500 ppb of aflatoxin in the diets of 60 laying hens (Isa Brown) divided into five groups and treated from week 15 to week 67. The aflatoxin-treated hens exhibited many deleterious effects, including reduced body weight; increased relative organ weights; decreased egg production; aflatoxin accumulation in eggs; decreased serum calcium, phosphorus, and alanino amonotransferase (ALT) levels; increased serum gammaglutamil transferase and lactic dehydrogenase levels; and, most significantly, severely altered cell foci and sinusoid dilatation in the liver, relative to control hens. The feeding of 1% soybean paste to hens reduced the adverse effects of aflatoxin on body weight, relative organ weights, egg production, and aflatoxin accumulation in eggs and improved serum calcium and ALT levels and the histopathological lesions of the liver. The feeding of 5% soybean paste to hens resulted in higher levels of the same types of improvements, especially with regard to the histopathological findings for the liver. On the basis of these results, it was suggested that a diet including 5% (and in some cases only 1%) Korean soybean paste protected laying hens and their eggs from the major deleterious effects of 500 microg of aflatoxin per kg of diet and from aflatoxin accumulation. These results indicate that dietary supplementation with Korean soybean paste reduces aflatoxin toxicity in laying hens that ultimately produce human foods such as eggs and poultry.