[Effect of ochratoxin on the health status of broilers]

An experiment was carried out with 7-day-old broiler birds to assess the effect of ochratoxin A on their health. A standard feed mixture, containing 4 mg/kg ochratoxin A in pure substance, was offered to the birds in the course of 21 days. No severe clinical symptoms and death cases were observed during the experimental period. However, both the growth and the development of the birds were arrested along with an increase in the relative weight of the kidneys and changes in their morphology--vascular disturbances and dystrophy more strongly manifested in the kidneys and to a weaker extent seen in the bursa of Fabricius, the thymus, and other organs.