The effects of creep feeding and different levels of soybean meal (SBM) and cowpea meal on the intestinal morphology and faecal characteristics were investigated in weaners. Prior to the feeding trial, one group of piglets was creep-fed and the other noncreep-fed. The two groups of piglets were weaned at 28 days and randomly assigned to four different diets whose main sources of protein were: T,-skimmed milk powder (control); T2-31 % soybean meal; T3-15 % soybean meal and 12 % skimmed milk powder; and T, -lOO % raw cowpea meal. Live weight gain was highest in the T1 group, and least in the T, group. At weaning only the noncreepfed weaners showed villus atrophy and crypt hyperplasia, but at 7 days postweaning these changes were evident in all groups except the control and were more severe in the noncreep (T2, T,) and cowpea-fed groups. At 21 days postweaning, only noncreep cowpea-fed pigs showed a reduced villus height when compared to the T, group. A mild diarrhoea was generally observed in all noncreep-fed weaners but its onset was more rapid (P < 0.01) and the duration longer (P < 0.05) in the Tz and T, pigs than in T, and TI groups. A lower faecal p H was observed in weaners that had diarrhoea when compared with a pH of 7.1 in pigs with normal moisture. The glucose content of the faeces was found to be significantly higher (P < 0.05) in the T, and T, groups. The observations of enteropathology and low growth performance in the T, group suggest that feeding raw cowpea to weaners is capable of inducing considerable antigenicity in the intestinal mucosa, causing damage and a consequent decrease in productivity. However, the introduction of creepfeeding before weaning appears to have some ameliorative effects.US. Copyright Clearance Center Code Statement: 093 1 -184X /96 /4302 -0075S11.50 /O
Some aspects of the toxicity of gossypol were investigated in ethanol-fed, gossypol-treated SpragueDawley rats, with and without protein malnutrition. Serum creatine phosphokinase activity was depressed in all gossypol-treated rats and gossypol caused greater decreases than ethanol in those animals that were fed the normal diet. Even though the adrenal glands were enlarged in all gossypol-treated rats, this was accompanied by depressed serum cortisol levels. Histopathological findings, including vacuolar degeneration of hepatocytes and dilation of the sinusoids in the liver, atrophy and leucocytic infiltration of cardiac myofibres, vacuolation of the renal glomerulus and cellular depletion of the spleen and thymus, were most severe in the protein-malnourished, gossypol-treated rats; these were generally absent in the other groups. These findings indicated that either adequate levels of protein in the diet and/or ethanol consumption have the effect of reducing gossypol toxicity, probably by reducing the amount of gossypol available for tissue exposure through enhanced metabolism and/or clearance from the body. However, an evaluation of the metabolic pathways involved in gossypol metabolism in ethanol-fed individuals might provide a better understanding of these observations.
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