ABSTRACT

The advancement of poultry industry in Nigeria is interrupted by a number of constraints and outbreak of diseases causing about 30% mortality of chickens in every year. The major etiological agents are the microorganisms (Bacteria, Virus, Fungus etc). Others are parasite and deficiency of mineral salts and vitamins (Ali 1994).Poultry feed may serve as a carrier for a wide variety of microorganisms including pathogenic fungal species. The genera included Aspergillus, Fusarium and  Penicillium species (Beuchat,1978). Fungi are adapted to the low amount of available moisture and grow actively within stored seeds and grains(Maciorowski et al.,2006). Fungus can affect feed quality negatively by reducing dry matter and nutrients, causing musty or sour odours, causing caking of the feed and most importantly producing mycotoxins (Herrera  et al.,2006). Mycotoxins are harmful substances produced by fungi in various feeds and are estimated to affect as much as 25% of the world’s crop each year( Lawlor et al.,2005). Most of these mytocoxins belong to the three genera of fungi: Aspergillus,Penicillium and Fusarium. Due to the diversity of their toxic effects and their synergetic properties, mycotoxins are considered as risky to the consumers of contaminated feeds(Yiannikouris et al., 2002).Talha (1999) detected Aspergillosis in 4.20% and Aflatoxicosis in 0.52% in poultry in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh (Salequeet al.,2003).