Table 3.

New studies on adverse effects on broilers chickens which have become available since the 2017 Opinion (EFSA CONTAM Panel, 2017a)

N $ /group, breed gender	Dosage and duration (mg/kg feed or mg/kg bw)	Endpoint(s)	Adverse effect concentration (mg/kg feed)**	References
84, 1‐day‐old Ross 708 male broilers	0, 1.6 mg/kg for 20 days	No significantly different villus height No effect on BWG	No effects at 1.6 mg/kg*	Grenier et al., 2016
320 (plus 80 used for controls) Cobb‐ Cobb male broilers	DON (1.3, 4.3 mg/kg) for 15 days and the respective nitrogen free diets (NFD) (NFD Control; NFD DON 1.4 mg/kg and NFD DON 3.7 mg/kg) for 6 days	Decreased digestibility of tyrosine. No impact on BWG.	No effect at 4.3 mg/kg	Liu et al., 2020
452, 1‐day‐old male Ross 308 broilers	0, ~5¥ mg/kg for 39 days	Reduction of BWG Modulation of intestinal oxidative stress, detoxification, inflammation and integrity Of note the authors used a challenge diet formulation	Effects at ~5 ¥ mg/kg feed*	Paraskeuas et al., 2021
45, 1‐day‐old male broilers (Ross 308)	0, 4.65 and 15.12 mg/kg for 42 days.	Increase in absolute and/or relative weight of thymus and gizzard weight Decrease in the absolute and relative weight of the colon and the small intestine Increased length and decreased density of the small intestine Decrease in BWG at 15.12 mg/kg feed only	Effects at 4.65 mg/kg	Riahi et al., 2020, Riahi et al., 2021b
60, 81‐day‐old Ross‐308 male and female broilers	0, 5*** mg/kg for 5 weeks	Decrease in BWG Increased paracellular permeability and bacterial translocation Increased susceptibility to infection by Campylobacter jejuni.	Effects at 5 mg/kg*	Ruhnau et al., 2020
60, 1‐day‐old Ross‐308 broilers	0, 5*** mg/kg for 5 weeks	Decrease in BWG Increased paracellular permeability Increased susceptibility to infection by Campylobacter jejuni.	Effects at 5 mg/kg*	Ruhnau et al., 2021
60, one‐day‐old male Ross 308 broilers	0, 3.95 mg/kg naturally and 3.86 mg/kg artificially contaminated diet for 14 and 28 days	Reduction of villus height (day 14). Severe damage of the jejunum villus (naturally and artificially contaminated, 28 days) Mild damage on ileum (28 days) Liquid accumulation in abdomen, cysts in the liver, hydropericardium and enlargement of kidneys in 7/20 birds (naturally contaminated, 14 days). No effect on body weight	Effects at 3.86 mg/kg*	Santos et al., 2021
120, 20‐day‐old male Ross 308 chickens	0.085 (control), 2.27 (low) and 5.84 (high) mg/kg for 6 days	Increase in feed to gain ratio No effect on body weight	Effects at 2.27 mg/kg	Wang et al., 2019
420, newly‐hatched Ross 308 male broilers	0, starter diet: 6.62 mg/kg, (1–21 days of age), grower diet:7.9 mg/kg, (22–34 days of age).	Suppressed growth of birds fed with grower diet. Lower body weight and average daily gain. Higher feed to gain ratio in birds fed with DON grower diet. Decreases in ileum villus height and depth of all DON treated birds.	Effects at 6.62 mg/kg	Wang and Hogan, 2019
36, 1‐day‐old Ross 308 broiler chickens	0, 5*** mg/kg for 4 weeks	Shorter villus and decrease in ratio of villus height and crypt depth in duodenum Reduced FCR No effects on body weight and FI Increased expression of COX‐2 in spleen and the bursa of Fabricius.	Effects at 5 mg/kg *	Yu et al., 2018, (Corrigendum, 2021)

^$ Including the number of poultry in the control group.

^*Only one concentration was tested.

^¥ Actual DON concentrations: starter diet (days 1–13) = 3,771 ± 453 μg DON/kg; grower diet (days 14–26) = 5,400 ± 648 μg DON/kg; finisher diet (15–39) = 3,008 ± 361 μg DON/kg.

^**In studies where only one concentration was used and effects observed, the concentration was considered as ‘concentration with effects’, not necessarily an LOAEL.

^***Targeted value. The actual concentration in the feed was not analysed.