Effect of Dietary Fumonisin B on Histomorphology and1 Histopathology of Organs of Pubertal Boars

Abstract: The effects of dietary fumonisin B (FB) on weight characteristics and pathology of organs of1 1 growing pigs were assessed using 24 male weanling pigs of 8-9 weeks of age in a 6-month feeding trial. The animals were randomly assigned to four diets containing 0.2, 5.0, 10.0 and 15.0 mg FB /kg as the control diet,1 diets 1, 2 and 3 respectively. The feeding trial was divided into 3 physiological phases (weanling, peri-pubertal and pubertal). At the end of the feeding trial, all the pubertal boars were sacrificed by stunning and decapitation and carefully eviscerated to collect the organs (the kidneys, liver, spleen and testes) and samples of small intestine. The organs collected from each animal were weighed. Selected organs and tissues collected from sacrificed were processed for histology. Dietary FB significantly (p<0.05) reduced the gross and relative1 weights of livers, spleens and kidneys of boars. Dietary FB also altered the histomorphology of the organs,1 which was concentration-dependent for all organs and tissues examined. All the animals exposed to the diet containing the highest FB concentration (diet 3) had severe splenic atrophy and/or lymphoid depletion, liver1 necrosis and/or lesion, intestinal mucosal erosion and testicular necrosis and/or Sertoli cells degeneration as compared to those fed the control. The progressive intestinal mucosal erosion with increased dietary FB1 observed in this study may be an indication of the role FB can play in non-specific gastrointestinal tract1 hypofunction in animals. This study has shown that dietary exposure to FB at a concentration of about