Diets containing high DON levels impair broiler performance

Among the mycotoxins affecting livestock production, the Fusarium mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) appears to be one of the most important ones. Many studies show the negative impact of DON in broiler chickens when the level of this mycotoxin is far above what is recommended by EU guidelines, i.e. 5,000 µg/kg (EC 576/2006). More recently, it has been demonstrated that dietary contamination with 2,500 µg/kg DON is enough to impair bone mineralisation in chickens (Keçi et al., 2019). Also, in