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


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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
INRA, Unité de Pharmacologie-Toxicologie, Toulouse, France.
Bertrand
B
Grenier
Ana-Paula
AP
Loureiro-Bracarense
Joelma
J
Lucioli
Graziela Drociunas
GD
Pacheco
Anne-Marie
AM
Cossalter
Wulf-Dieter
WD
Moll
Gerd
G
Schatzmayr
Isabelle P
IP
Oswald
D000818:Animals; D016207:Cytokines / Q000235:genetics; D037341:Fumonisins / Q000633:toxicity*; D007107:Immune System / Q000187:drug effects; D007668:Kidney / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D008099:Liver / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D008168:Lung / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D013552:Swine; D014255:Trichothecenes / Q000633:toxicity*; D015430:Weight Gain / Q000187:drug effects
D016207:Cytokines; D037341:Fumonisins; D014255:Trichothecenes; C007262:deoxynivalenol