Effects of feeding grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium toxins on selected haematological parameters and lymphocyte subsets in primiparous sows

Abstract

In a field experiment (54±1 days), 20 primiparous sows (day 89±2 of gestation) were randomly divided into two equal groups. The sows were fed diets naturally containing 0.3 mg/kg of the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) for the control group and 5.1 mg/kg DON, 0.1 mg/kg zearalenone and 21.6 mg/kg fusaric acid for the experimental group. In the control group, the concentrations of zearalenone and fusaric acid were under detection limit. The sows from the experimental group consumed significantly less feed during gestation (P=0.002), during lactation (P=0.027) and in the weaning to oestrus interval (P<0.001) than control sows. Blood samples were taken four times during the experiment (day 0, 17, 42 and 52). There were no differences in total and differential blood leukocyte count, with the exception of neutrophils on day 52, which reached 42.22±9.02% in the experimental group and 32.10±10.65% in the control group (P=0.040). Flow cytometric analysis of peripheral blood T lymphocytes with monoclonal antibodies against CD3, CD4 and CD8 revealed the percent of both CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ cells. We calculated the absolute number of CD3+CD4+ and CD3+CD8+ cells (109/L), which showed a decreasing trend in the experimental group, with 2.40±0.63 and 3.83±1.15, respectively, at the beginning and 1.78±0.39 and 2.74±0.89, respectively, at the end of experiment. In the control group, these values were 2.19±0.70 and 3.41±0.87 and finally 2.12±0.69 and 3.11±1.12 x 109/L, respectively. The obtained results suggest that feed naturally contaminated with Fusarium toxins reduces the feed intake, influences the neutrophil count, and has immunomodulatory effect on T lymphocyte numbers.