The Impact of Deoxynivalenol on the Performance of Taiwan Country Chickens
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Chen, Stephanie
Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of deoxynivalenol (DON) on the growth performance of Taiwan country chickens. Two hundred and eight 5-d-old black-feathered Taiwan country chickens were randomly assigned to 4 treatments, 0, 2, 5 and 10 ppm DON. The experiment lasted for 16 weeks and was divided into three intervals, 5-21 d, 22-70 d, and 71-112 d. Results indicated that although the difference of body weight gain between male and female birds widened during the second phase in treatments fed diets containing high levels of DON, the overall growth performance was not significantly different. None of the blood biochemistry (serum ALT, AST, UA and IgA) responded to increased DON levels in the diet. DON had no adverse effects on relative organ weights except that relative weights of spleen in birds fed 5 ppm DON diet increased compared with that of controls (P < 0.05). Increasing proliferation (proliferating cell nuclear antigen, PCNA), higher levels of apoptosis (TUNEL assay), and DNA damage (γ-H2AX) were observed in immunohistochemistry of the spleen sections in 10 ppm DON treatment (P < 0.05), except that female birds had decreased proliferation index. There were no significant differences in intestinal morphology, whereas the length of villus in ileum tended to be shorter among birds fed diets containing low levels of DON. The expression of tight junction protein, claudin-5, increased in some female birds fed 2 and 5 ppm DON, while in male birds, it appeared to have decreased expression levels (P < 0.05). In conclusion, Taiwan country chickens seemed to possess high tolerance to DON contaminated diets. Nevertheless, our results show that DON may cause disturbance to the immune system and impair the barrier function of the intestine, leading to higher susceptibility to infectious disease. Further investigation on the long-term effect of DON is required to confirm these findings.
Subjects
deoxynivalenol
Taiwan country chicken
growth performance
tissue morphology
long-term effect
SDGs
Type
thesis
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