Toxico-pathological effects of in ovo inoculation of ochratoxin A (OTA) in chick embryos and subsequently in hatched chicks.
This study was designed to investigate the toxico-pathological effects of in ovo inoculation of ochratoxin A (OTA) in chicken embryos and subsequently in the hatching chicks. Nine hundred fertile white leghorn (WL) layer breeder eggs were divided into eight groups (A-H). Group A was maintained as untreated control, whereas group B was kept as sham control (10 µL of 0.1 M NaHCO(3) solution). Before incubation, groups C, D, E, F, G, and H were injected with 0.01, 0.03, 0.05, 0.10, 0.50, and 1.00 µg OTA/egg, respectively. At 53 hrs of incubation, crown to rump length, optic cups, and eye lens diameters were significantly (p ≤ .05) lower, whereas neural tube closure defects were higher in the OTA-treated embryos. Teratogenic defects (studied at day 9 of incubation) and embryonic mortalities were higher in the groups administered high doses of OTA. A significant increase was noted in the serum concentration of ALT, urea, and creatinine, along with higher weights of liver and kidney, in chicks hatched from OTA-contaminated eggs. These findings suggested that there are teratogenic and substantive toxicological risks in the developing chicken embryos and hatched chicks that could be exposed to OTA in ovo.
University College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur-63100, Bahawalpur, Pakistan. zahoor82@gmail.com
Zahoor-ul-Hassan
Muhammad Zargham
MZ
Khan
Muhammad Kashif
MK
Saleemi
Ahrar
A
Khan
Ijaz
I
Javed
Sheraz Ahmed
SA
Bhatti
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001774:Blood Chemical Analysis; D049628:Body Size / Q000187:drug effects; D002642:Chick Embryo / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D002645:Chickens; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000187:drug effects; D007908:Lens, Crystalline / Q000473:pathology; D009436:Neural Tube Defects / Q000139:chemically induced / Q000473:pathology; D009793:Ochratoxins / Q000633:toxicity*; D009898:Optic Disk / Q000473:pathology; D009929:Organ Size / Q000187:drug effects; D018675:Toxicity Tests
D009793:Ochratoxins; C025589:ochratoxin A