Hydrogen Water Detoxifies Contaminated Animal Feed, Protects Turkey Health
- Authors
- Denise Gómez-Espinosa, Francisco Cervantes-Aguilar, Juan Del Río-García, Tania Villarreal-Barajas, Alma Vázquez-Durán, Abraham Méndez-Albores
- Journal
- Toxins
- Year
- 2017
- DOI
- 10.3390/toxins9030104
- Study Type
- Turkey
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Mexico
- Health Condition
- Aflatoxicosis
- Body System
- Digestive
TL;DR
Neutral electrolyzed water (NEW) can effectively reduce the harmful effects of aflatoxins in contaminated maize, making it safer for young turkeys to eat.
Key Finding
Neutral electrolyzed water treatment of aflatoxin-contaminated maize prevented the toxic effects of aflatoxins in young turkeys, with treated birds showing normal growth, survival rates, and organ health comparable to birds fed uncontaminated feed.
Summary
Researchers tested whether neutral electrolyzed water (water treated with electricity to change its chemical properties) could reduce the harmful effects of aflatoxins (toxic substances produced by mold) in contaminated corn fed to young turkeys. Over two weeks, turkeys eating contaminated corn treated with electrolyzed water showed similar growth and health to turkeys eating clean corn, while turkeys eating untreated contaminated corn had poor growth, higher death rates, and organ damage.
Practical Takeaway
This study in poultry suggests electrolyzed water may help neutralize aflatoxin contamination in animal feed, but this is animal research only with no direct application to human hydrogen water consumption. The relevance to hydrogen water marketed for human health is unclear, as the study focuses on a specific detoxification process in livestock rather than the general health effects of hydrogen-enriched drinking water.
Abstract
Different in vitro and in silico approaches from our research group have demonstrated that neutral electrolyzed water (NEW) can be used to detoxify aflatoxins. The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the ability of NEW to detoxify B-aflatoxins (AFB₁ and AFB₂) in contaminated maize and to confirm detoxification in an in vivo experimental model. Batches of aflatoxin-contaminated maize were detoxified with NEW and mixed in commercial feed. A total of 240 6-day-old female large white Nicholas-700 turkey poults were randomly divided into four treatments of six replicates each (10 turkeys per replicate), which were fed ad libitum for two weeks with the following dietary treatments: (1) control feed containing aflatoxin-free maize (CONTROL); (2) feed containing the aflatoxin-contaminated maize (AF); (3) feed containing the aflatoxin-contaminated maize detoxified with NEW (AF + NEW); and (4) control feed containing aflatoxin-free maize treated with NEW (NEW). Compared to the control groups, turkey poults of the AF group significantly reduced body weight gain and increased feed conversion ratio and mortality rate; whereas turkey poults of the AF + NEW group did not present significant differences on productive parameters. In addition, alterations in serum biochemical constituents, enzyme activities, relative organ weight, gross morphological changes and histopathological studies were significantly mitigated by the aflatoxin-detoxification procedure. From these results, it is concluded that the treatment of aflatoxin-contaminated maize with NEW provided reasonable protection against the effects caused by aflatoxins in young turkey poults.