Individual and combined effects of subclinical doses of deoxynivalenol and fumonisins in piglets

• Published in: Molecular nutrition & food research 2011-05, Vol.55 (5), p.761-771
• Main Authors: Grenier, Bertrand, Loureiro-Bracarense, Ana-Paula, Lucioli, Joelma, Pacheco, Graziela Drociunas, Cossalter, Anne-Marie, Moll, Wulf-Dieter, Schatzmayr, Gerd, Oswald, Isabelle P
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: animal performance; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Blood; Co-contamination; cytokines; Cytokines - genetics; Data processing; Deoxynivalenol; diet; dietary exposure; Diets; feed contamination; Food industries; Food toxicology; Fumonisins; Fumonisins - toxicity; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Fusarium; histopathology; Immune response; Immune System - drug effects; Immunity; Immunoglobulin G; Inflammation; ingestion; Interleukin 6; Interleukin 8; interleukin-1; Kidney; Kidney - drug effects; Kidney - pathology; kidneys; lesions (animal); Life Sciences; Liver; Liver - drug effects; Liver - pathology; Lung; Lung - drug effects; Lung - pathology; lungs; lymphocyte proliferation; Lymphocytes; Macrophages; Male; Mycotoxins; Ovalbumin; piglet feeding; piglets; Polymerase chain reaction; Spleen; Subclinical doses; Swine; Toxicity; toxicity testing; Trichothecenes - toxicity; Vaccination; Vomitoxin; Weight Gain - drug effects
• ISSN: 1613-4125; 1613-4133; 1613-4133
• DOI: 10.1002/mnfr.201000402

Scope: Deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FB) are the most frequently encountered mycotoxins produced by Fusarium species and most commonly co-occur in animal diets. These mycotoxins were studied for their toxicity in piglets on several parameters including plasma biochemistry, organ histopathology and immune response. Methods and results: Twenty-four 5-wk-old animals were randomly assigned to four different groups, receiving separate diets for 5 wk, a control diet, a diet contaminated with either DON (3 mg/kg) or FB (6 mg/kg) or both toxins. At days 4 and 16 of the trial, the animals were subcutaneously immunized with ovalbumin to assess their specific immune response. The different diets did not affect animal performance and had minimal effect on hematological and biochemical blood parameters. By contrast, DON and FB induced histopathological lesions in the liver, the lungs and the kidneys of exposed animals. The liver was significantly more affected when the two mycotoxins were present simultaneously. The contaminated diets also altered the specific immune response upon vaccination as measured by reduced anti-ovalbumin IgG level in the plasma and reduced lymphocyte proliferation upon antigenic stimulation. Because cytokines play a key role in immunity, the expression levels of IL-8, IL-1β, IL-6 and macrophage inflammatory protein-1β were measured by RT-PCR at the end of the experiment. The expression of these four cytokines was significantly decreased in the spleen of piglets exposed to multi-contaminated diet. Conclusion: Taken together, our data indicate that ingestion of multi-contaminated diet induces greater histopathological lesions and higher immune suppression than ingestion of mono-contaminated diets.