Efficacy of a Commercial Mycotoxin Adsorbent Against Low‐Level Aflatoxin B 1 and Fumonisin B 1 Exposure in Broiler Chickens: In Vitro and In Vivo Assays

Mycotoxins cause significant economic losses in poultry. This study evaluates the ability of a commercial mycotoxin adsorbent to bind toxins in vitro and its effects at different concentrations on broiler chickens exposed to low levels of aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) and fumonisin B 1 (FB 1 ). In vitro study: standard solutions of AFB 1 and FB 1 were prepared in buffer solutions at pH 2 and 5. Two concentrations were used: AFB 1 (20 and 50 μ g/kg) and FB 1 (5 and 20 mg/kg). An artificial intestinal fluid was used; pH was adjusted to 5 to simulate the intestinal environment. The adsorbent (1%) was incubated with 1 mL of the artificial intestinal fluid containing each toxin. After being centrifuged, they were analyzed by HPLC. In vivo study with the following four treatments (35 broiler chickens each) was included: G1 negative group: basal diet (BD) without mycotoxins or any adsorbent; G2 positive group: BD + AFB 1 (37.88 μ g/kg) + FB 1 (7.3 mg/kg); G3 adsorbent group A1: BD + AFB 1 (54.85 μ g/kg) + FB 1 (8.1 mg/kg) + 1 kg/ t adsorbent; and G4 adsorbent group A2: BD + AFB 1 (40.9 μ g/kg) + FB 1 (8.1 mg/kg) + 2 kg/ t adsorbent. Over 42 days, productive parameters, carcass yield, intestinal histomorphometry, liver histopathology, liver fat content, volatile fatty acid concentration (VFA), and genotoxicity were evaluated. In vitro, the mycotoxin adsorbent shows a higher percentage of adsorption for AFB 1 , followed by FB 1 . In vivo, there were no significant differences in productive parameters overall ( p ≥ 0.001), but G3 showed improved growth and feed conversion compared to G2 . G2 exhibited liver damage, increased liver fat, and reduced intestinal villus length and crypt depth, which was moderated in G3/G4. G3 showed elevated VFA levels. Mycotoxins induced DNA damage, whereas A1/A2 provided protective effects. According to our results, we observed that the commercial adsorbent effectively adsorbs mycotoxins in vitro and improves the parameters evaluated in the chronic co‐occurrence of AFB 1 and FB 1 , depending on the dose used.