Effects of feeding a blend of grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins on swine performance, brain regional neurochemistry, and serum chemistry and the efficacy of a polymeric glucomannan mycotoxin adsorbent1

Abstract

The co-occurrence of Fusarium mycotoxins in contaminated swine diets has been shown to result in synergistic toxicity beyond that observed for individual toxins. An experiment was conducted, therefore, to investigate the effects of feeding a blend of grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins on growth, brain regional neurochemistry, serum immunoglobulin (Ig) concentrations, serum chemistry, hematology, and organ weights of starter pigs. Three levels of glucomannan polymer (GM polymer, extract of yeast cell wall, Alltech Inc.) were also tested for its efficacy to overcome Fusarium mycotoxicoses. A total of 175 starter pigs (initial weight of 10 +/- 1.1 kg) were fed five diets (seven pens of five pigs per diet) for 21 d. Diets included (1) control, (2) blend of contaminated grains, (3) contaminated grains + 0.05% GM polymer (4) contaminated grains + 0.10% GM polymer and (5) contaminated grains + 0.20% GM polymer. Diets containing contaminated grains averaged 5.5 ppm deoxynivalenol, 0.5 ppm 15-acetyldeoxynivalenol, 26.8 ppm fuuric acid, and 0.4 ppm zearalenone. Feed intake and weight gain of all pigs fed contaminated grains was significantly reduced compared to controls throughout the experiment. The weights of liver and kidney, expressed as a percentage of body weight, were lower in pigs fed the contaminated diet than in those fed the control diet. The feeding of contaminated grains significantly reduced concentrations of dopamine in the hypothalamus and pons and concentrations of dihydroxyphenylacetic acid and norepinephrine in the pons. The ratios of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid to serotonin, however, were elevated in the hypothalamus and pons. The feeding of contaminated grains increased serum IgM and IgA concentrations, while serum IgG concentrations were not altered. The supplementation of GM polymer prevented some of the mycotoxin-induced alterations in brain neurotransmitter and serum Ig concentrations. In summary, the feeding of grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins reduced growth, altered brain neurochemistry, increased serum Ig concentrations, and decreased organ weights in starter pigs. Some of the Fusarium mycotoxin-induced changes in neurochemistry and serum Ig concentrations can be prevented by the feeding of yeast cell wall polymer at appropriate concentrations, although this was not reflected in increased growth rate under these experimental conditions.

Effects of two different blends of naturally mycotoxin-contaminated maize meal on growth and metabolic profile in replacement heifers

“…Contrary to Edrington et al (1994) in growing lambs, we did not observe a specific effect from aflatoxin on Hct and WBC, probably because of our lower mycotoxin concentration. Our results on RBC features differed from those by Swamy et al (2002) probably because of the differences in the Fusarium mycotoxins blend (in that case, based on DON and fusaric acid).…”

“…The increased plasma Cl Figure 3 Puberty attainment of dairy heifer in the three experimental groups during the monitored period for puberty assessment. level in A-F heifers agrees with the observation described by Swamy et al (2002) in swine fed grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins (mainly DON and fusaric acid). The same increase in plasma Cl was observed in rats (Takahashi et al, 2008), as a sign of subchronic toxicity from a nivalenol contamination.…”

The effects of dietary deoxynivalenol (DON) on selected blood biochemical and hematological parameters in pre-pubertal gilts

“…Rotter et al (1994) observed an increase in the percentages of segmented neutrophils and the remaining leukocytes in pigs fed diets contaminated with DON at 0.75-3 mg/kg of feed for 28 days. Swamy et al (2002) noted a decrease in plasma Ca, P in . and Cl concentrations in piglets fed a diet contaminated with DON at 5.5 mg/kg of feed for 21 days.…”

Short Communication: Antioxidant capacity in the intestinal mucosa of weanling piglets fed diets containingFusariummycotoxins and the efficacy of commercial supplements sold as detoxifiers

“…To mitigate the negative effects of DON on growth performance, anti-mycotoxin additives can be added to the diet. However, most commercial anti-mycotoxin additives (e.g., glucomannans, aluminosilicate) are not effective, the capacity of these additives to mitigate the effects of Fusarium mycotoxins on growth performance being limited (Da¨nicke et al 2004a(Da¨nicke et al , 2007Do¨ll et al 2005), or did not give consistent results (Swamy et al 2002(Swamy et al , 2003Diaz-Llano and Smith 2006), the exception being PV Patience et al 2014;Le Thanh et al 2015).…”

“…The blend of yeast cells, bacteria and plant extracts would be efficient to mitigate the negative effect of Fusarium toxins on growth performance in poultry (Da¨nicke et al 2002;Ghareeb et al 2012) but not in pigs (Barnes et al 2010), whereas aluminosilicates were not able to mitigate adverse effects of trichothecenes in pigs (Do¨ll et al 2005). The capacity of organic ligands, such as glucomanans, to reduce the effects of Fusarium toxins on growth performances is limited and has provided conflicting results (Swamy et al 2002(Swamy et al , 2003Diaz-Llano and Smith 2006). The anti-mycotoxin additive, containing a blend of vitamins, antioxidants and preservatives (ascorbic acid, citric acid, potassium sorbate and sodium metabisulfite), has been shown to restore growth performance in pigs fed a diet contaminated with DON (Patience et al 2014).…”