PATHOMORPHOLOGICAL CHANGES IN PIGLETS AT TRICHOTHECENE MYCOTOXICOSIS

Abstract

The aim of the study was to identify pathomorphological changes in combined deoxynivalenol and T-2 toxicosis in piglets of the rearing group. The material of the study was 19 weaned piglets aged 52‒63 days, in which mycotoxicosis was suspected during their lifetime. The material for the study also served as 10 samples of full-grain granular compound feed SK-4 for piglets aged 1.5‒2 months, fed in groups of the studied animals. We conducted a pathoanatomic study using the method of complete evisceration according to G.V. Shor. During the autopsy, liver and kidney samples were taken from piglets for histological examination. The pathological material was fixed in a 10% solution of neutral formalin. Then the filling was carried out in paraffin and sections 5‒7 microns thick were made on a rotary microtome. The sections were stained with hematoxylin and eosin. The quantitative content of mycotoxins in feed samples was determined in the laboratory of biochemical analysis of the Federal Scientific Center All-Russian Scientific Research and Technological Institute of Poultry Farming using the method of high-performance chromatography in tandem with mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS). As a result of the study, the content of T-2 toxin in the concentration from 0.03 to 0.89 mg/kg and the presence of deoxynivalenol (DON) toxin in the concentration from 0.5 to 4.9 mg/kg were found in the feed samples, which significantly exceeded the maximum permissible levels of these mycotoxins in pig feed. At the autopsy, hemorrhages, foci of necrosis and erosion in the skin, anemia, foci of necrosis, erosion, hemorrhages, catarrhal inflammation in the stomach, hemorrhages and inflammation in the intestines, pulmonary edema and acute reactive hepatitis were found in piglets. Histological examination of the liver revealed granular and watery dystrophy, necrosis of hepatocytes, leukocyte infiltration of Disse spaces. In the kidneys - watery dystrophy and necrosis of the epithelial cells of the renal tubules.