Effects of deoxynivalenol (DON) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and DON metabolism in pigs.

Wheat infected naturally withFusarium, contaminated mainly with 18.53 mg DON per kg, was added to a total constant wheat proportion of 400g/kg diet. Control and DON contaminated feed was fed for 11 weeks underad libitum and restrictive feeding conditions to 48 pigs of both sexes, which were randomly divided into 4 groups. Effects on performance (live weight range between 26 and 100kg), duration of feed intake and blood parameters were investigated. Parallel to this study, a balance study was carried out to examine the effects on nutrient digestibility and DON metabolism.The group fed the DON contaminated rationad libitum consumed 15% less feed and gained 14% less live weight compared to thead libitum control group, while the feed to gain ratio was unaffected. Under restrictive feeding conditions (DON and control) pigs exhibited 33%, 25% and 10% lower feed consumption, live weight gain and feed to gain ratio, respectively, than the control group fedad libitum. Metabolizability of energy, digestibility of organic matter, crude protein, crude fat and N-retention were significantly increased by 4, 3, 6, 11 and 10%, respectively, in the DON group of the restrictively fed pigs.In average up to 43.2% of the ingested DON, as the parent toxin in both groups, was eliminated with the urine and up to 3.0% with faeces. DON fed animals needed more time to consume the restrictive ration than the control group.