Deoxynivalenol: Toxicity, mechanisms and animal health risks

Trichothecene contamination of agricultural staples such as wheat, barley and maize during Fusarhan colonization is an increasingly common problem possibly because of expanded use of no-till farming and changing climate patterns. Since food and feed contamination by trichothecenes have been associated with human and animal toxicoses, serious questions remain regarding assessment of potential risks from ingesting foodborne trichothecenes and how they should be regulated. Deoxynivalenol (DON), known colloquially as vomitoxin is the trichothecene most commonly detected, often at the ppm level. All animal species evaluated to date are susceptible to DON according to the rank order of pigs > mice > rats > poultry ruminants. Differences in metabolism, absorption, distribution, and elimination of DON among animal species might account for this differential sensitivity. Both 3-and 15-acetyl DON, which sometimes co-occur in smaller amounts cereal grains, are equivalently or less toxic than DON based on LD50 values in mice and are thus unlikely to pose any additional risk. Acute exposure to extremely high DON (>= 27 mg/kg body weight; b.w.) doses is required to cause mortality or marked tissue injury in experimental animals. In contrast, acute exposure to relatively low doses (>= 50 mu g/kg bw.) can cause vomiting in pigs, the most sensitive species. This corresponds to human food poisoning outbreaks with nausea, diarrhea and vomiting as primary symptoms that were associated with Fusarium-infested cereals. The most common effects of prolonged dietary exposure of experimental animals to DON are decreased weight gain, anorexia, decreased nutritional efficiency and altered immune function with species differences again being apparent. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.