Effects of feeding growing or finishing pigs with deoxynivalenol (DON) naturally contaminated feed on growth performance and immunological status

A feeding trial with 3 groups of 48 growing pigs was conducted to determine the effects of feeding a naturally deoxynivalenol contaminated diet (1600 μg/kg DON) on performance and selected haematological and immunological parameters.Animal were fed with contaminated diet during the growing (T2 treatment) or the finishing (T3 treatment) period.Another group (T1 treatment) receive non-contaminated feed. During the growing period, feed consumption and growth rate were higher in the T2 treatment than in the two other treatments (T1 and T3). By contrast, during the finishing period, no significant differences in the performance were observed between the different treatments. The haematological parameters exhibit no differences between the treatments neither in the growing nor in the finishing period. By contrast, the immunological parameters were significantly altered in pigs fed with DON contaminated diet during the growing period (T2 treatment): increased lymphocyte stimulation upon mitogenic stimulation, increased IgA serum concentration and decrease IgG serum concentration. When the animals fed with contaminated diet during the growing period return to non-contaminated diet during the finishing period (T2 treatment) the increase lymphocyte proliferation persisted whereas the concentrations in IgA and IgG return to basal levels. In the finishing period, the presence of DON in diet did not affect the immunological parameters (T3 versus T1 treatments). In conclusion, diet contaminated with low level of DON affects the immune response of the pigs and the animals were more susceptible when they ingest DON contaminated feed in the growing than in the finishing period.