[Effects of feeding corn infested by Fusarium to sows]

Abstract

The effects of feeding Gilts with mouldy Corn containing 3,61 mg/kg zearalenone were tested. Ingestion of this mycotoxin by puberous Gilts blocked the sexual cycles in more than half of the animals. Uterine horns were enlarged and corpora lutea didn't regress into corpora albicantia. The presence of zearalenone in the diet of pregnant Gilts had no effect on embryonic mortality at 80 days of pregnancy, but reduced foetal weight by 26%.