The effects of feeding grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins with and without a polymeric glucomannan adsorbent on lactation, serum chemistry and reproductive performance after weaning of first-parity lactating sows

¹ Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, N1G2W1, Canada

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: tsmith{at}uoguelph.ca.

	Abstract

An experiment was conduced to investigate the effects of feeding grains naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol on lactation, metabolism, and reproductive performance after weaning of first parturition sows and to evaluate the efficacy of a polymeric glucomannan mycotoxin adsorbent (GMA). Thirty-six Yorkshire sows were fed 3 diets (n = 12 sows/diet) from 91 ± 3 d of gestation up to weaning on d 21 after farrowing. Diets included (1) control (2) contaminated grains and (3) contaminated grains + 0.2% GMA. The variables measured include ADFI, average daily BW change, serum biochemistry, milk composition, BW of litters at weaning, and weaning to estrus interval. The feeding of contaminated grains and contaminated grains + GMA reduced ADFI (P < 0.001). The feeding of contaminated grains resulted in weight loss (P = 0.007) and the feeding of contaminated grains + GMA resulted also in weight loss (P = 0.028) compared with controls, which underwent a small weight gain. There were no differences between the sows fed contaminated grains and those fed contaminated grains + GMA in average daily BW change. On d of farrowing, total serum protein concentrations were reduced for sows fed contaminated grains compared with controls (P = 0.038), and between sows fed contaminated grains compared with sows fed contaminated grains + GMA (P = 0.019). Seven d after farrowing, serum urea concentrations were reduced for sows fed contaminated grains (P = 0.049) and contaminated grains + GMA compared with controls (P = 0.048) . Milk composition was not affected by treatments. There were no differences in BW among litters at weaning and there were no effects of diet on mortality of piglets during lactation. There was a trend for increased weaning-to-estrus interval in sows fed contaminated grains compared with controls (P = 0.09) and contaminated grains + GMA compared with controls (P = 0.08). It was concluded that the feeding of diets naturally contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins to lactating sows reduced feed intake and increased BW losses. The weaning-to-estrus interval also tended to be longer in sows fed contaminated diets. Supplementing contaminated feed with GMA could counteract the reduction in serum protein and serum urea observed in sows fed contaminated feed.

Key Words: deoxynivalenol, fusarium, glucomannan, mycotoxins, reproduction, sows