Interaction of aflatoxin and paratyphoid infections in broiler chickens

There was a significant (P less than 0.05) interaction resulting in increased mortality in chickens fed aflatoxin and infected with Salmonella worthington, S. thompson, S. derby, or S. typhimurium var. copenhagen which cause paratyphoid. There was no interaction on body weight or spleen weight; however, there wan an interaction with all four Salmonella species resulting in enlarged livers from which Salmonella could be isolated with increased frequency. Aflatoxin caused a decrease in total serum proteins but a dramatic increase in anti-Salmonella agglutinins in infected birds. These results suggest that aflatoxin impairs some component of the immune system other than that forming humoral antibodies and perhaps other than the reticuloendothelial system which have been reported previously to be impaired during aflatoxicosis in the chicken.