Experimental one year ochratoxin A toxicosis in pigs

Mild mycotoxic nephropathy was induced in 6 pigs by a diet containing ochratoxin A at 800 ppb, several times higher than that naturally encountered in some feed for pig production in Bulgaria. The nephropathy was expressed only as slightly hypertrophied kidneys with a faintly mottled surface, discernible at the end of the experiment to a skilled observer but probably not recognisable in routine slaughterhouse processing. Histological examination showed two types of changes: degenerative - affecting epithelial cells in some proximal tubules of pigs after 6 months, and proliferative changes in the interstitium which predominated after 1 year of exposure to ochratoxin A. Telangiectasis and lymph stasis were rarely seen. The renal lesions were similar to those described for classical mycotoxic porcine nephropathy formerly encountered in Denmark, but they were rather different from the porcine nephropathy which occurs spontaneously in Bulgaria. Measurement of ochratoxin A in serum provided analytical values complementary to feed intake and with similar concentration values. It also showed both accumulation with time, from 3 months to 6 months (approximately 1 ppm), and a 2-fold range of values within a group eating from a common feed source, as in commercial pig production. Mild symptomatology in this long, single-mycotoxin experiment serves to lessen somewhat the current perception of the direct renal toxicity of ochratoxin A alone, though a role in multi-toxin contexts is unquestioned.