Effects of oral exposure to sodium sulphite-treated deoxynivalenol (DON)-contaminated maize on performance and plasma concentrations of toxins and metabolites in piglets

ABSTRACT

The objective of the present study was to demonstrate the efficiency of the decontamination process applied to deoxynivalenol (DON)-contaminated maize by sodium sulphite (Na₂SO₃) treatment in vivo. Additionally, in vitro characterisation of the toxicity of the DON sulphonates (DONS 1, 2 and 3 denote structurally different forms), the resulting DON metabolites, on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) should substantiate the inactivation of DON. In a piglet experiment, both DON-contaminated maize and -uncontaminated control maize either untreated (DON−, CON−) or Na₂SO₃-treated (DON+, CON+) were mixed into feed and fed for 42 d starting from weaning. The results showed that feed intake and daily weight gain of animals fed DON− were significantly lower compared to animals fed CON− and CON+, whereas group DON+ reached the control level or even exceeded it. The feed-to-gain ratio was unaffected (p = 0.45). Furthermore, DON concentrations in plasma markedly reflected the diets’ DON concentrations. These were < 0.1, < 0.1, 5.4 and 0.8 mg/kg feed for CON−, CON+, DON− and DON+, and amounted to 0.3, 0.4, 33.0 and 9.3 ng/ml in plasma, respectively. Whereas DONS 2 and 3 were detected in the DON+ diet, only DONS 2 was recovered in plasma. Regarding the toxicity of DONS, no or much lower toxicity was found compared to DON. DONS 1 and Na₂SO₃ did not affect the viability of PBMC. At 32.71μM DONS2 the viability was reduced by 50% and thus this compound was less toxic than DON by a factor of 73. Consequently, wet preservation of maize with Na₂SO₃ was an effective tool to avoid the adverse effects of DON on performance of piglets.

KEYWORDS:

• Decontamination
• deoxynivalenol
• performance
• piglets
• sodium sulphite
• sulphonates
• toxicity

Acknowledgment

The authors would like to thank all co-workers for their help and cooperation in the piglet experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by Biomin Holding GmbH, Biomin Research Center, Tulln, Austria.