Mycotoxins and their impact on swine immunity

04 Feb 2009

Mycotoxins are toxic substances that disrupt the normal function of the animals’ immune system. This leads to significant negative economic impacts. The effect on the immunity and subsequent impacts in pigs are discussed here.
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Immune system
Mycotoxins not only negatively impact swine performance and fertility; they also impact the immune system of the animals. The pig’s immune system is the major defence system which should be able to counteract any agents trying to disrupt the organism integrity. When an animal is exposed to a hazardous agent its immune system will make all the effort to eliminate the foreign organism and to counteract its negative effects. Animals which are fed mycotoxin-contaminated diets will have a reduced response as these toxic substances disrupt the body’s normal immune mechanism. Mycotoxins such as aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, fumonisins and trichothecenes pose negative effects at different levels of the immune response.

Several scientific research papers have found that mycotoxins negatively alter the innate and non-specific resistance of pigs, by reducing the phagocytic activity of both macrophages and neutrophils and the humoral and cell-mediated response to antigens. A practical consequence in a pig farm of the occurrence of these facts is the higher susceptibility to infectious diseases and the failure of vaccination programmes.
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Conclusion
As disease occurrence negatively impacts many factors, calculating its cost in pig farms is almost as complex as explaining the function of the immune system in simple terms. Avoiding disease on pig farms is almost impossible but prevention is possible and should be paramount in daily management protocols. It is up to the producer to effectively control the potential entry ports of a disease, such as feed, in order to minimise its occurrence. Mycotoxins usually found in feeds depress the immune function of the animals, making them an easy target for the pathogenic agents. Preventing these negative substances such as mycotoxins will undoubtedly be more cost effective than treating the diseases triggered by such agents.

Source: Feed tech Magazine Volume 12. No 9