Mycotoxins are a worldwide hazard to animal feed and capable of deleterious effects on poultry. The present study aimed to evaluate the effects of an anti-mycotoxin feed additive on productive and reproductive parameters of breeder hens and roosters fed diets experimentally contaminated with zearalenone (ZEN). A total of 288 hens and 32 roosters (Cobb 500) were randomly distributed in one of four dietary treatments, with nine hens and a rooster per pen and eight pens per treatment: control (C); C + anti-mycotoxin (AM) additive; C + ZEN; and C + AM + ZEN. The trial lasted from 28 to 65 weeks of age. Egg production, egg quality, fertility, hatchability, and hatch rates of fertile eggs were evaluated, as were sperm morphology and abnormalities, and chick quality. ZEN inclusion did not affect egg production but had harmful effects on albumen, egg quality and weight, eggshell thickness, egg fertility and hatchability, and chick length and quality, compared to C, with this negative effect partially alleviated by AM inclusion. Both AM and ZEN, however, decreased spermatic concentration, without affecting sperm morphology or abnormality. The anti-mycotoxin additive effectively mitigated the deleterious effects of ZEN on reproductive parameters and egg quality indexes when fed to breeder hens.

A total of 216 Cobb 500 broiler breeder hens were randomly distributed across two treatments consisting of diets supplemented with 0 or 1% spray-dried plasma (SDP), resulting in 27 replications per treatment and four birds per pen. In addition, 36 roosters, housed in individual pens, were allocated to the same treatments, with each bird considered a replicate, in order to assess the influence of SDP on semen and hatching characteristics. The experimental diets were fed from 26 weeks until the conclusion of the study, at 65 weeks of age. Semen quality, embryonic mortality and quality of newly hatched chicks were evaluated at 29, 45, and 63 weeks. Hens were inseminated with fresh semen, and eggs were incubated following standard procedures. Semen from 63-week-old roosters had higher sperm concentration than other age groups, while 29-week-old rooster semen exhibited higher progressive motility than semen from older roosters (P < 0.001). The 45-week-old roosters had the lowest values for the analyzed semen quality parameters (average path velocity, straight-line velocity and curvilinear velocity). Additionally, sperm from 45-week-old roosters, regardless of SDP supplementation, had fewer total morphological defects than 63-week-old roosters. However, 1% SDP in the diet reduced total sperm cell defects at 63 weeks of age, as well as total sperm head and tail defects (P < 0.05) compared to unsupplemented birds. Dietary SDP reduced late embryonic death in 63-week-old breeders (P < 0.05). The results demonstrate that 1% SDP in breeder diets reduced late embryonic mortality and sperm cell defects, mainly in aged birds, enhancing the reproductive performance of broiler breeders.