An acute challenge with a deoxynivalenol-contaminated diet has short- and long-term effects on performance and feeding behavior in finishing pigs1

Abstract

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by various fungi and are known to contaminate animal feed ingredients especially cereals. One of the most common mycotoxins in swine diets is deoxynivalenol (DON) which is known to decrease growth performance. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the effects of single or repeated shortterm DON challenges on growth performance, and feeding behavior in finishing pigs. A total of 160 pigs were distributed to four experimental groups in two successive replicates with each pig individually measured for live BW and individually fed using an electronic feeding station. The pigs in control group CC were fed with a standard finisher diet during the whole duration of the experimental period. Groups DC, CD, and DD were given the DON-contaminated diet (3.02 mg DON/kg feed) for 7 d at 113 d, at 134 d, and at 113 and 134 d of age, respectively. The DON-contaminated diet was formulated with a naturally contaminated corn. During challenge periods, ADFI was decreased by 26% to 32% (P < 0.05) and ADG by 40% to 60% (P < 0.05). The drop in ADFI during DON challenges was associated with changes in the feeding behavior: when compared to the nonchallenged pigs, pigs fed with DON-contaminated diet had lower number of meals per day (9.6 versus 8.2 meals per day on average; P < 0.05) and slower feeding rate (42.0 g/min versus 39.9 g/min on average; P < 0.05). For the whole trial period, pigs submitted to the DON challenge at the end of the experiment (i.e., first time for CD group and second time for DD group) had a lower (P < 0.05) ADFI (2.67 and 2.59 kg/d, respectively) when compared to the control CC group of pigs (2.87 kg/d). An intermediate value was reported for the DC groups (2.79 kg/d). All challenged groups, i.e., DC, CD, and DD pigs, had lower (P < 0.05) overall ADG (970, 940, and 900 g/day, respectively) than CC (1,050 g/day) for the whole trial period. Pigs challenged early in the trial, i.e., DC and DD groups, had a higher (P < 0.05) FCR than CC group (3.00 and 3.06 versus 2.80, respectively) while group CD showed intermediate results (2.92). This study demonstrates that the severity of DON toxicity in pig performance can be related to the age of exposure (113 or 134 d) and the number of exposures to the toxin (one or two). Exposure to DON also resulted to longterm effects because challenged pigs showed limited ability to recover after the DON-induced reduction of feed intake.

Longitudinal Analysis of the Microbiota Composition and Enterotypes of Pigs from Post-Weaning to Finishing

“…In this study, the DON exposure impacted the ADFI, ADG, and FCR of the pigs at 119 and 140 days of age as previously detailed by Serviento et al [27], but no impact on the performances was observed after the two-week recovery at 154 days of age. In addition, a transient impact on the microbiota composition has been observed [28].…”

Modelling the feed intake response of growing pigs to diets contaminated with mycotoxins

“…The parameters of the target CFI curve did not differ between the four treatment groups resulting in similar values for the average target DFI (Table 1). This differs from the results of Serviento et al (2018) who reported differences in the observed ADFI among the groups. Moreover, the average target DFI of the control group CC was very similar to the observed ADFI (Table 1).…”

“…The constant reduction in DFI during feeding the DONcontaminated diet differs from the average observations of the change in DFI of Serviento et al (2018). They observed an important reduction in DFI during the first day of the challenge, and this reduction became progressively less important to surpass the DFI of the control group resulting in compensatory DFI (see Figure 4 of Serviento et al, 2018). There are two explanations for this difference.…”

“…Data from an experiment about the impact of DON on the feed intake of growing pigs were used (Serviento et al, 2018). In brief, 155 growing pigs with an initial BW of approximately 50 kg were used in an experiment that lasted from 99 to 154 days of age.…”

“…Although the consequences of DON on pigs have been well documented, the dynamic feed intake response during and after acute DON challenges has not been studied until recently. Serviento et al (2018) studied the effects of DON on feed intake in individual growing pigs in relation to age and repeated exposure to DON. These data offer an opportunity to challenge and evaluate the novel procedure developed by Nguyen-Ba et al (2020) to quantify resistance and resilience traits of growing pigs through their feed intake response to DON-contaminated diets and to compare these traits among animals.…”