Activated carbon does not prevent the toxicity of culture material containing fumonisin B 1 when fed to weanling piglets 1 A. Piva*, G. Casadei*, G. Pagliuca*, E. Cabassi†, F. Galvano‡, M. Solfrizzo§, R. T. Riley¶, and D. E. Diaz# 2,3 *DIMORFIPA, Universita’ di Bologna, Bologna, Italy; †Universita’ degli Studi di Parma, Parma, Italy; ‡Universita’ Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy; §CNR, Institute of Sciences of Food Production, Bari, Italy; ¶ ARS, USDA, Russell Research Center SAA, Athens, Georgia 30605; and #Fondazione Parco Tecnologico Padano, Lodi, Italy ABSTRACT: Fumonisins are mycotoxins found pri- marily in corn and corn products that are produced by Fusarium verticillioides, F. proliferatum, and several other Fusarium species. The toxicity of fumonisin B 1 (FB) from culture material with and without activated carbon was evaluated using weanling piglets. Fifty-six weanling pigs were assigned to one of four treatments diets based on BW. The treatment diets were 1) con- trol = corn-soybean basal diet with <2 ppm FB; 2) AC = control + activated carbon at 1% of the diet, as fed; 3) FB = control + culture material (formulated to contain 30 ppm FB, as-fed basis); and 4) AC + FB = control + activated carbon at 1% of the diet as fed + culture mate- rial (formulated to contain 30 ppm FB). A total of four replicates of four pigs per pen for the control and AC treatments and three piglets per pen for the FB and AC + FB treatments were used. Feed and water were offered ad libitum for the duration of the 42-d experi- ment. Compared with pigs fed the control or AC diets, pigs receiving the two FB-contaminated diets (FB or AC + FB) had lower G:F (P < 0.01), higher serum enzyme activities of γ-glutamyltransferase and glutamic oxalo- acetic transaminase (P < 0.05), and higher concentra- Key Words: Fumonisin B 1 , Mycotoxins, Sequestering Agents, Swine, Toxicity 2005 American Society of Animal Science. All rights reserved. J. Anim. Sci. 2005. 83:1939–1947 Introduction Fumonisins are a group of mycotoxins that have been associated with toxicities in several species; these myco- toxins occur throughout the world, primarily in corn 1 The authors are grateful to V. Antonacci, N. Chiulli, and M. Simi- oli for the valuable technical assistance. The study was funded by a joint grant from the Ministero dell’Istruzione dell’Universita’ e Ric- erca Scientifica e Tecnologica and research funds from the Univ. of Bologna and DIMORFIPA. 2 Correspondence: P.O. Box 1585, Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico 00977 (phone: (787) 585-2035; e-mail: duarte@mycotoxin.net). 1939 tions of cholesterol, free sphinganine, sphingosine-1- phosphate, and sphinganine 1-phosphate (P < 0.05). Although animals consuming FB diets showed no signs of respiratory distress, all pigs consuming either the FB or the AC + FB diets had marked pulmonary edema. Lesions were observed in the lungs, heart, and liver of pigs fed the FB or AC + FB diets, and treatment- associated changes also were seen in the pancreas, in- testines, spleen, and lymph nodes. No lesions were ob- served in the brain. In liver, lung, heart, pancreas, spleen, intestines, and lymph nodes, the histopathologi- cal effects observed were more severe in the AC + FB group, suggesting that the AC treatment worsened the toxic effects of FB. Additionally, immunological mea- surements of macrophage function (CD14) were af- fected (P < 0.05) by the consumption of the FB diets. The consumption of FB diets containing 30 ppm fumoni- sin B 1 from cultured material significantly affected per- formance, biochemical measurements, and organ pa- thology in weanling pigs. The addition of activated car- bon at the rate of 1% to the diet was not effective in protecting against the detrimental effects of fumoni- sin consumption. and corn-based products. Fumonisins are produced pri- marily by Fusarium verticillioides and F. proliferatum (Shephard et al., 1996). Fumonisins have been shown to cause leukoencephalomalacia in horses (Marasas et al., 1988; Ross et al., 1993), liver and renal cancer in rodents (IARC, 2002), and porcine pulmonary edema (PPE) and hydrothorax in swine (Colvin and Harrison, 1992; Osweiler et al., 1992). The mechanism of action of 3 Present address: University of Puerto Rico, San Juan 00936. Received June 14, 2004. Accepted March 4, 2005.