B- 601 [1-6] Indian J. Anim. Res., Print ISSN:0367-6722 / Online ISSN:0976-0555
AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE
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Effect of dietary aflatoxins (AFB1) on hematological and biochemical indices of male buffaloes Omer Naseer1*, Jawaria Ali Khan2, Muhammad Sarwar Khan2, Muhammad Ovais Omer3, Junaid Naseer4, Muhmmad Luqman Sohail1, Muhmmad Usman Saleem5, Waqas Ahmad6 and Abdullah Saghir Ahmad7 Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Received: 16-08-2016 Accepted: 17-03-2017 DOI:10.18805/ijar.v0iOF.9128 ABSTRACT The objective of the study was to determine the effect of dietary aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in growing male buffaloes in terms of feed intake, hematological and serum biochemical parameters. Thirty six bovine growing male buffaloes between 6 months to 12 months of age were divided into four groups to receive diet having no AFB1, 0.6mg/kg, 0.8mg/kg and 1.0mg/kg AFB1 of feed per animal per day for 28 days. The results indicate that the average daily feed intake of AFB1-treated growing male buffaloes significantly declined (P < 0.05) compared with the control. Serum levels of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and creatinine were significantly increased (P < 0.05) in response to AFB1, However change in blood urea nitrogen (BUN) levels was non-significant values of all hematological parameters decreased significantly (P < 0.05) in1.0mg/kg AFB1 group as compared to other groups after day 14 onward. Key words: Aflatoxin B1, Hematology, Serum Biochemistry. INTRODUCTION Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites produced by Aspergillus parasiticus, Aspergillus flavus, and the rare Aspergillus nomius (Naseer et al., 2016; Hassan et al., 2015). They occur in feeds as aflatoxin B1, B2, G1 and G2 forms and in milk as their oxidative forms M1 and M2 (Pleadin et al., 2015). These are toxic as well as carcinogenic and are most commonly produced in moist grains (corn, rice, wheat, barley etc.) and nut products (Fink Gremmels, 2008). Aflatoxins can negatively affect animal health, performance and reproduction if consumed in sufficient quantities (Fapohunda et al., 2008; Whitlow and Hagler, 2005). Symptoms of chronic aflatoxin intoxication in growing male buffaloes include decreased appetite, weight loss, and feed efficiency and liver damage (Yunus et al., 2015). Effects of aflatoxin consumption are similar in all animals; the animal’s susceptibility to aflatoxin, however, varies by species, age, and individual variation (Chohan et al., 2016). In acute clinical aflatoxicosis, signs of acute hepatic injury are seen as coagulopathy, increased capillary fragility, hemorrhage and prolonged clotting times. Blood pigments may appear in the urine and mucous membranes are icteric. The liver shows gross changes caused by central lobular congestion and hemorrhage and fatty changes of surviving hepatocytes. Death of the animal may occur within hours or
a few days. In chronic aflatoxin poisoning, most of the effects are still referable to hepatic injury, but on a milder scale. The most sensitive clinical sign of chronic aflatoxicosis is reduced rate of growth of young animals. Chronic aflatoxin poisoning, however, is the manner in which animals are most frequently affected and the economic consequences are often considerable (Afzal et al., 2009). Little work has been done on the effects of aflatoxin intoxication on blood parameters in bovine growing male buffaloes. So this study was conducted with the aim to analyze the effect of AFB1 on feed intake, weight gain, hematology and serum biochemistry in bovine growing male buffaloes. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this study 36 bovine growing male buffaloes between 6 to 12 months of age were divided into 4 groups namely A, B, C and D and were acclimatized for 7 days. Groups A, B and C were daily fed aflatoxin (AFB1) at the rate of 0.6mg/kg, 0.8mg/kg and 1.0 mg/kg of concentrate feed respectively through gelatinized capsules for a 28 days period while Group D was kept as control and were fed concentrate without AFB1. The amount of basal diet daily offered for feeding was calculated according to the nutritive requirements of the growing male buffaloes at daily dry matter intake of 3% of body (Table 1). AFB1 was obtained from the Sigma-Aldrich (St Quentin Fallavier, France).
*Corresponding author’s email:
[email protected] 1 Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University College of Veterinary and Animal sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. 2 Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan 3 Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Biosciences, UVAS Lahore, Pakistan. 4 Department of Wildlife and Ecology, Faculty of Fisheries &Wildlife, UVAS Lahore, Pakistan. 5 Department of Biosciences, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan. 6 Department of Theriogenology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, UVAS Lahore, Pakistan. 7 Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Veterinary Sciences, UVAS Lahore, Pakistan.
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INDIAN JOURNAL OF ANIMAL RESEARCH
The live body weight of all the animals was measured weekly by electronic weighing balance (Avery Berkel L122).5 ml of blood sample from each calf was collected once a week throughout the experimental period from juglar vein puncture. The samples were immediately shifted to the University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan. Whole blood collected was divided into two halves one for complete blood count (CBC) and other for liver function test (LFT). In hematology complete blood count (CBC) which includes total erythrocytes count (TEC), total leukocytes count (TLC), & hemoglobin level (Hb), Hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH), mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were performed. For liver function test aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine transaminase (ALT) and for renal function test (RFT) blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and Creatinine were estimated by chemistry analyzer (URIT-800) using Human kit following manufacturer’s recommendations. CBC was performed by hematological analyzer (Abacus junior vet) First blood sampling was performed from all four groups before giving aflatoxin B1 (0 day sampling). Next four blood samplings were performed on day 7, 14, 21 and 28 of intoxication period. Statistical analysis: Comparison of effects of different concentrations of toxin B1 on productive performance on CBC, LFT and RFT were analyzed using Repeated Measure Design ANOVA to compare the groups at weeks of interval with the help of Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS 17.0, Chicago, IL). Differences were considered significant at P < 0.05. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Average daily feed intake per calf recorded from 07, 7-14, 14-21 and 14-28 days of experiment in Table 2. Results showed that basal diet having 1.0mg/kg aflatoxin B1 resulted in significantly reduced feed intake with time (0-7, 7-14, 14-21, 21-28 days) as compared to control group. The initial average body weight of all the growing male buffaloes was 117±3.40 kg. Average weight gain during the first week was not statistically different among groups however significant higher weight gain in control group (group D) and lower weight gain in group C was observed during experimental period (Table 2) .
Table 1: Chemical composition of concentrate offered to animals Ingredients Dry matter Crude protein Ether extract Ash
Content, % 88 18 2.9 1.6
At day zero and day 7 of the experiment, no significant difference (P>0.05) was observed in values of hematological and serum biochemical parameters as shown in table 3 and table 4. At day 14 the values of all hematological and biochemical parameters under study were significantly different among groups. The Total Erythrocyte Count (TEC) at day 14 was lowest in growing male buffaloes of group C and highest in Group D. Similarly Hb, PCV, WBCs, Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Neutrophils, MCV, MCH and MCHC values at day 14 were lowest in growing male buffaloes of group C followed by group B and group A, while highest in group D. The ALT, AST and Creatinine values at day 14 were highest in group C and lowest in group D. Interestingly the BUN level did not decreased significantly (table 5). The pattern of hematological and serum biochemical parameters under study on day 21 and 28 was similar to that of day 14. The TEC, Hb, PCV, WBCs, Lymphocytes, Monocytes, Neutrophils, MCV, MCH and MCHC values at day 21 and 28 were lowest in growing male buffaloes of group C followed by group B and group A, while highest in group D. The ALT, AST and Creatinine values were highest in group C and lowest in group D. The BUN values did not changes significantly (table 6 table 7). Weight gain is significantly higher in control group “D” while the lowest weight gain is recorded in the group having maximum concentration of AFB1 i.e. “C” throughout 28 days of experiment agreed by Paterson (2007); Murugesan et al. (2015); Pastorelli et al. (2012) and Yarru et al. (2009) who observed that more the concentration of AFB1 administered to the animals resulted in the significant lower body weight gain. The present study verified decreased feed consumption in reaction to aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in growing male buffaloes. This may be due to systemic stress caused by changes in the levels of tri-iodothyronine (T3) and thyroxin (T4) due to which the metabolism of the animal is disturbed (Eraslan et al., 2006). This is in accordance with the findings of Pastorelli et al. (2012), who reported that an AFB1contaminated diet caused reduced feed intake in Friesian cattle. Similarly, our results are also in line with the findings of Pasha (2008) describing a significant decrease in feed intake of Sahiwal dairy cows by feeding a 500 g/kg AFB1contaminated feed. Akhtar et al. (2014) observed a decrease in feed intake due to the aflatoxin B1 in Nilli Ravi buffalo, which is correlated with our study. Our study is in agreement with Abdel-Rahman and Okle (2014) who observed a decline in the aggregate amount of white blood cells, red blood cells, hemoglobin level, activity of lymphocyte and phagocytic index in sick growing male buffaloes as compared with animals of control group. Similarly, hematological changes related with experimentally induced aflatoxicosis in rams were described for by Donmez et al. (2012). This type of aflatoxicosis is often financially
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Table 2: Feed Intake (Kg/day) and Weight Gain (Kg/day) in Bovine calves on different concentrations of aflatoxin B1 Feed Intake
Days
A(0.6mg/kg) B(0.8mg/kg) C(1.0mg/kg) d a b 0-7 4.0±08678 4.7±04747 4.6±9.0059 d b c 7-14 4.2±00935 4.5±00884 4.3±.00972 b c d 14-21 3.9±00913 3.6±.00951 3.4±.01094 b c d 21-28 3.2±00981 3.0±.00913 2.7±00935 Weight Gain Days A(0.6mg/kg) B(0.8mg/kg) C(1.0mg/kg) 0-7 0.381±0.0532 0.3932±0.0532 0.3623±0.0532 * b c d 7-14 0.3721±0.0543 0.3629±0.0576 0.3481±0.0583 * b c d 14-21 0.3573±0.0537 0.3483±0.0573 0.3284±0.0583 * b c d 21-28 0.3384±0.0572 0.3174±0.0582 0.3032±0.0543 Means in the same rows having different superscripts show significant differences from each other (P
