No consistent effect in pigs of low deoxynivalenol (DON) concentrations in contaminated wheat

Two feeding experiments with 90 piglets and 120 pigs were conducted to study the effects of feeding naturally deoxynivalenol contaminated wheat base diets (0, 280, 560 and 840 μg/kg DON) during post-weaning phase 2 period and growingfinishing.Performances were evaluated for the phase 2 period, with initial and final weight of 11 and 27 kg after receiving a common phase 1 diet, and for the whole growing-finishing period with weights of 29 and 107 kg. Average daily feed intake (g/d) for treatments were 906, 917, 878, 918 in phase 2 period and 2330, 2274, 2370, 2452 in growing-finishing period. Average daily gain (g/d) were 563, 563, 563 et 585 in phase 2 period and 838, 815, 856, 862 in growing-finishing period. Differences were not significant except between 280 and 840 μg/kg DON treatments for fattening pigs. Feed conversation ratios were not influenced by treatment in the 2 experiments. No differences of immunological parameters (IgA, IgG, IgM concentration and lymphocytes proliferation) were observed in the piglet trial. The study suggests there are few effects of low doses of DON in wheat on performances and immunological parameters of pigs.