Elsevier

Aquaculture

Volume 533, 25 February 2021, 736189
Aquaculture

Dietary aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) reduces growth performance, impacting growth axis, metabolism, and tissue integrity in juvenile gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2020.736189Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Dietary aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) leads to metabolic depletion and impaired growth in a dose-dependent manner.

  • AFB1 compromised tissue architecture in the liver, spleen, and kidney, but not survival.

  • Stress and growth axes molecular mechanisms were severely inferred by dietary AFB1.

Abstract

Mycotoxins are an increasing threat to all the related commodities from agriculture. Its occurrence is expected to increase due to climate change. Here, we examined the impacts of dietary toxicity of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) at levels of 1 or 2 mg AFB1 kg−1 fish feed. Inclusion of AFB1 in the diet resulted in 80% inhibition of the total weight gain during the 85-day trial. Carbohydrate and lipid energetic metabolites, both in plasma and liver, were depleted. Moreover, the histopathological analysis revealed several tissue anomalies in the liver, kidney, and spleen.

Furthermore, the relative expression of gene transcripts for growth regulation was affected by AFB1. Adenohypophyseal gh and hepatic igf1 were inversely correlated due to AFB1 effects. Relative expression levels of gene transcripts as stress indicators were increased at AFB1 highest doses, such as hypothalamic trh, crh, and crhbp, as well as star in head kidney. Interestingly circulating levels of cortisol were unaffected. Overall, our results showed that aquafeeds with AFB1 impaired growth, alter metabolism, tissue integrity, and transcriptomic responses. However, we did find AFB1 residue neither in the liver nor muscle.

Section snippets

Gene abbreviations

actbbeta (β)-actin
crhcorticotropin-releasing hormone
crhbpcorticotropin-releasing factor-binding protein
ef1aelongation factor 1-alpha
ghgrowth hormone
igf1insulin-like growth factor 1
pomcaproopiomelanocortin a
pomcbproopiomelanocortin b
starsteroidogenic acute regulatory protein
trhthyrotropin-releasing hormone

Experimental fish feed

A commercial feed (57% crude protein, 18% crude fat, 10% ash, 1.6% phosphorus, and 19.5 mJ kg−1 digestible energy, Skretting, Burgos, Spain) was used as a basis to prepare the experimental diets. For this purpose, the feed was grounded and sieved (0.5 mm), and three different concentrations of AFB1 (Sigma A6636) were added: i) CT (0 mg AFB1 kg−1 fish feed), ii) D1 (1 mg AFB1 kg−1 fish feed) feed) and D2 (2 mg AFB1 kg−1 fish feed). After this, the feeds were pelleted again at a size suitable for

Growth performance and AFB1 residue

Body mass evolution was significantly affected by both factors, AFB1 concentration F(2,36) = 28.4, P < 0.0001, and rearing days F(5,36) = 502.9, P < 0.0001. In addition, both factors significantly interacted, F(10,36) = 7.2, P < 0.0001. Hence, a significantly lower body mass gain was detected from the sampling at day 45 for D2, which was kept for D2, and expanded for D1 from that day until the experiment lasted (Fig. 1). By the end of the experimental time (85 days), a significant 14 and 22%

Discussion

There is evidence about agricultural products/commodities being contaminated by aflatoxins in the recent past. Specifically, developing countries are the most vulnerable to potential mycotoxins outbreaks, which may result in human casualties. In the worst reported aflatoxin outbreak, the content in maize samples for direct human consumption was found between 0.02 and 8 mg/kg (Probst et al., 2007). However, developed countries should not neglect this problem since several aflatoxicosis outbreaks

Conclusions and future remarks

The present results in the gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata) reaffirms that dietary aflatoxin B1 induces poor growth performance in a dose-dependent manner, leading to metabolic depletion and, subsequently, growth impairment. However, and even though the histological organization in the liver, kidney, and spleen was also severely affected, survival was not compromised over the 85 days of dietary exposure.

Transcriptomic alteration for adenohypophyseal gh and hepatic igf1 further supports the

Funding

This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Business-MINECO (AGL2016-76069-C2-1-R) awarded to JM.M. The authors (A.B., and J.M.M.) belong to the Fish Welfare and Stress Network (AGL2016-81808-REDT), supported by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MINECO, Spanish Government). A. Barany is currently supported by the University of Cadiz Ph.D. scholarship (PIF UCA/REC02VIT/2014). CCMar is supported by Portuguese national funds from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)

Author contributions

A.B., and J.M.M., conceptualization and investigation; A.B., M.G., J.C., M.B., M.O., and S.S., methodology; A.B., formal analysis and data curation; A.B., writing - original draft; A.B., M.G., J.C., M.B., M.O., S.S., J.F., G.M., and J.M.M., writing - review & editing; J.M.M., was responsible for Funding acquisition and Project administration.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank to Ms. Rosa Vázquez and staff for the use of the facilities of Servicios Centrales de Investigación en Cultivos Marinos SCI-CM, CASEM, University of Cádiz, Spain to carry out the experiments. We also thank the group of Dr. Francisco Javier Moyano of the University of Almería (Spain), who made the experimental aquafeeds.

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