Susceptibility of Broiler Chickens to Deoxynivalenol Exposure via Artificial or Natural Dietary Contamination

Abstract

Multi-mycotoxin contamination of poultry diets is a recurrent problem, even if the mycotoxins levels are below EU recommendations. Deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the main studied mycotoxins due to its risks to animal production and health. When evaluating the effects of DON, one must consider that under practical conditions diets will not be contaminated solely with this mycotoxin. In the present study, broiler chickens were fed diets with negligible mycotoxin levels or with naturally or artificially contaminated diets containing approximately 4000 μg/kg DON. Birds were sampled at D14 and D28. Naturally-contaminated diets caused the most harm to the birds, especially the young ones, which presented decreased jejunal villus height and increased lesions, down-regulation of a peptide transporter. At D28 broiler chickens seemed to have adapted to the dietary conditions, when no differences were observed in villus morphometry, together with up-regulation of a carbohydrate transporter. However, intestinal lesions remained present in these older birds.

Impact of a Natural Fusarial Multi-Mycotoxin Challenge on Broiler Chickens and Mitigation Properties Provided by a Yeast Cell Wall Extract and a Postbiotic Yeast Cell Wall-Based Blend

“…Additionally, a better FCR in the final stage of the study was observed in birds fed PYCW and YCWE, which corroborates other findings highlighting the effects of DON specifically during the later stages of growth [ 56 ], indicating an age-related difference in uptake, metabolism and excretion. However, the zootechnical impact of DON on performance traits varied between studies, depending on the concentration and source of toxin-natural contamination versus synthetic mycotoxins—[ 3 , 57 ] and duration of exposure to the challenge [ 58 ]. Differences in biotic and abiotic environmental factors not necessarily captured during those trials could also contribute to the variation in reported results.…”

“…Mycotoxins produced by several groups of fungi under favorable biotic and abiotic stress conditions [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] can have negative effects on livestock such as impaired kidney [ 4 , 5 ] and liver function [ 6 , 7 , 8 ], neurological impacts inducing emesis or anorexia [ 9 , 10 ], immunosuppression [ 11 , 12 , 13 ], growth retardation [ 14 , 15 ] and reproductive problems [ 16 ]. The simultaneous presence of different Fusarium fungal toxins along with Aspergillus and/or Penicillium spp.…”

Induction of gut leakage in young broiler chickens fed a diet with low rye inclusion

“…The present model was able to induce gut leakage in young (14-day-old) broiler chickens, and it was not acute enough to affect older (28-day-old) chickens. Such a compensatory mechanism was previously demonstrated in broiler chickens (Maiorka et al, 2003;Santos et al, 2021) and might be an adaptive gut response after exposure to diverse sources of stress or dietary challenges (Lamot 2017). It is important to bear in mind that mRNA expression will not necessarily reflect the actual protein expression in tissue.…”

“…Young broiler chickens produce limited amounts of pancreatic and intestinal mucosal enzymes (Almirall et al, 1995;Uni et al, 1999;Sklan and Noy, 2000), which are positively correlated with their body weight (Shakouri et al, 2008). Moreover, their immature gut does not support the transit of a viscous digesta with the same efficiency as that of older birds (Smulikowska, 1998) because of decreased intestinal contractile activity (Smulikowska et al, 2002).…”

A Mathematical Model for Calculating Intestinal Villus Surface Area in Broiler Chickens

“…(Hayakawa et al 2014;Abebe and Gugsa 2018), reovirus (Rebel et al 2006;Read-Snyder et al 2009), and rotavirus (Villarreal et al 2006) can affect the intestinal morphology and villus integrity. Also, some mycotoxins such as trichothecenes (T-2) and deoxynivalenol induce injury and necrosis of the tips of the villi due to radiomimetic action (Hoerr et al 1981;Santos et al 2021).…”