Effects of Feeding Purified Zearalenone Contaminated Diets with or without Clay Enterosorbent on Growth, Nutrient Availability, and Genital Organs in Post-weaning Female Pigs

The effects of different levels of natural clay enterosorbent on the growth, nutrient availability, and genital organs of post-weaning female pigs fed with an addition of zearalenone (ZEA) were investigated in the study. A total of thirty-five post-weaning gilts ($L{\times}Y{\times}D$) with an average body weight of 12.36${\pm}$1.46 kg were used in the test. The gilts were raised individually in metabolism cages and fed a corn-soybean meal-whey basal diet with an addition of 0 or 1 mg/kg of ZEA for 24 d with four levels of natural clay enterosorbent added in the feed. The treatments were: i) control; ii) control+2.5 g/kg clay; iii) control+1 mg/kg ZEA; iv) control+1 mg/kg ZEA+1.25 g/kg clay; v) control+1 mg/kg ZEA+2.5 g/kg clay; vi) control+1 mg/kg ZEA+5.0 g/kg clay; vii) control+1 mg/kg ZEA +10 g/kg clay. Pigs fed diets contaminated with additional purified ZEA had significantly reduced apparent digestibility of crude protein (CP), gross energy (GE) and apparent metabolic rate of GE (ME/GE, p<0.05) without changes of net protein utilization (NPU, p>0.05). Final body weight, average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), vulva length, vulva width, vulva area, relative weights of genital organ and proliferative changes of the ovary tissues in gilts fed ZEA-contaminated diet were increased (p<0.05) compared to the gilts fed the control diet. Addition of natural clay enterosorbent in the ZEA-contaminated diet showed a positive protection effect on ZEA feeding, and the protection was increased linearly or quadratically as clay content increased. However, in pigs fed a diet with clay alone at 2.5 g/kg level there was no significant impact (p>0.05) on all the parameters as compared to the control. It is suggested that feeding ZEA at about 1.0 mg/kg for 24 days might result in a deleterious effect in pigs, and addition of 5 or 10 g clay enterosorbent per kg diet can effectively neutralize the detrimental effects of the ZEA feeding.