Dietary aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) reduces growth performance, impacting growth axis, metabolism, and tissue integrity in juvenile gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata)
Section snippets
Gene abbreviations
actb beta (β)-actin crh corticotropin-releasing hormone crhbp corticotropin-releasing factor-binding protein ef1a elongation factor 1-alpha gh growth hormone igf1 insulin-like growth factor 1 pomca proopiomelanocortin a pomcb proopiomelanocortin b star steroidogenic acute regulatory protein trh thyrotropin-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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