Modified Palygorskite Improves Immunity, Antioxidant Ability, Intestinal Morphology, and Barrier Function in Broiler Chickens Fed Naturally Contaminated Diet with Permitted Feed Concentrations of Fusarium Mycotoxins.

Yefei Cheng,Chao Wen,Qiao Xu,Yanmin Zhou,Yue Su,Yueping Chen

doi:10.3390/toxins10110482

Yefei Cheng, Chao Wen + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/toxins10110482

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Journal: Toxins	Publication Date: Nov 20, 2018
Citations: 16	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Nanjing Agricultural University

Abstract

This study investigated effects of modified palygorskite (MPal) on immunity, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal barrier integrity in broiler chickens challenged with permitted feed Fusarium mycotoxin concentrations. One-day-old chicks were allocated into three treatments with eight replicates. Chickens in three groups were fed a basal diet with normal corn (control), contaminated diet containing moldy corn, with Fusarium mycotoxins contents in the diets lower than permitted feed mycotoxin concentrations, and the contaminated diet supplemented with 1 g/kg MPal for 42 days, respectively. Compared with control, moldy corn decreased bursa of Fabricius weight, jejunal secreted immunoglobulin A concentration, ileal superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, jejunal and ileal villus height (VH) and VH/crypt depth (CD) ratio, and jejunal zonula occludens-1 and mucin 2 mRNA abundances at 42 days as well as ileal VH/CD ratio at 21 days; while they increased jejunal malondialdehyde accumulation at 21 and 42 days, jejunal SOD activity at 21 days, and serum diamine oxidase activity at 42 days, which were almost recovered by MPal. Moreover, dietary MPal upregulated ileal claudin-2 mRNA abundance compared with other two groups. The results indicated that MPal addition exerted protective effects on immunity, oxidative status, and intestinal barrier integrity in chickens challenged with permitted feed Fusarium mycotoxins levels.

Highlights

Mycotoxins, the secondary metabolites produced by fungal species, are the most frequently occurring contaminants in human foods and animal diets
These findings suggest a possibility that a relative low level of Fusarium mycotoxins may induce negative effects on broiler chickens, and more investigations need be conducted to test this hypothesis
Compared with the control group (Table 1), broiler chickens receiving Fusarium mycotoxin-contaminated diet exhibited a decrease in bursa of Fabricius relative weight at 42 days (p < 0.05), whereas this effect was not observed at 21 days (p > 0.05)

Summary

Introduction

Mycotoxins, the secondary metabolites produced by fungal species, are the most frequently occurring contaminants in human foods and animal diets. Available studies have already demonstrated that higher dosages of Fusarium mycotoxins exceeding permitted feed concentrations of mycotoxins could induce impairment on animals including broiler chickens and pigs, as characterized by growth retardation, immunosuppression, oxidative stress, and/or reproductive disorders [7,8,9,10,11,12]. Those kinds of mycotoxin levels in the animals’ feed are strictly forbidden, and various dosages of Fusarium mycotoxins that lower than permitted feed of mycotoxins concentrations are more common in practice. Little information is available in terms of low levels of Fusarium mycotoxins challenge on this barrier function in broiler chickens

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