Abstract
Four diets contaminated with 1.1 to 5.0 mg/kg deoxynivalenol (DON) and 0.4 to 2.4 mg/kg zearalenone (ZEA) were fed to four groups of six growing Large White pigs. Urine samples were collected after 3 to 4 days and again after 6 to 7 days on the diets. On each sampling day, half of the animals were sampled in the morning, after an 8-h fast, and the other half were sampled in the afternoon, after 7 h of ad libitum access to feed. The urinary concentrations of DON, DON-glucuronide, DON-3-sulphate, de-epoxy-DON, as well as of ZEA, ZEA-14-glucuronide, α-zearalenol and α-zearalenol-14-glucuronide, analysed using LC-MS/MS, were used to calculate urinary DON and ZEA equivalent concentrations (DONe and ZEAe). The urinary concentration of DONe (P < 0.001), but not of ZEAe (P = 0.31), was lower in the fasted than that in the fed animals. The urinary DONe/creatinine and ZEAe/creatinine ratios were highly correlated with DON and ZEA intake per kg body weight the day preceding sampling (r = 0.76 and 0.77; P < 0.001). The correlations between DON intake during the 7 h preceding urine sampling in the afternoon and urinary DONe/creatinine ratio (r = 0.88) as well as between mean ZEA intake during 3 days preceding urine sampling and urinary ZEAe/creatinine ratio (r = 0.84) were even higher, reflecting the plasma elimination half-time of several hours for DON and of more than 3 days for ZEA. ZEAe analysed in enzymatically hydrolysed urine using an ELISA kit was highly correlated with the LC-MS/MS data (r = 0.94). The urinary DONe and ZEAe to creatinine ratios, analysed in pooled urine samples of several pigs fed the same diet, can be used to estimate their exposure to DON and ZEA.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Stephanie Schürch, Agroscope, Nyon (Switzerland), for providing the Fusarium-contaminated maize used in the present experiment. Furthermore, the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Family and Youth, the Austrian National Foundation for Research, Technology and Development as well as BIOMIN Holding GmbH are acknowledged for funding the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Mycotoxin Metabolism. In addition, we are grateful to Allegra Niggeler for the help in sample collection and to Sylvia Caha for the help in sample preparation.
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Thanner, S., Czeglédi, L., Schwartz-Zimmermann, H.E. et al. Urinary deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEA) as biomarkers of DON and ZEA exposure of pigs. Mycotoxin Res 32, 69–75 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12550-016-0241-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12550-016-0241-2