Mycotoxin sequestering agent: Impact on health and performance of dairy cows and efficacy in reducing AFM1 residues in milk.

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the exposure to a diet naturally contaminated with mycotoxins on lactation performance, animal health, and the ability to sequester agents (SA) to reduce the human exposure to AFM1. Sixty healthy lactating Holstein cows were randomly assigned to two groups: naturally contaminated diet without and with the addition of a SA (20 g/cow/d AntitoxCooPil® -60% zeolite-40% cell wall-). Each cow was monitored throughout lactation. The concentration of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in feed and M1 (AFM1) in milk, health status, and productive and reproductive parameters were measured. AFB1 concentration in feed was very low (2.31 µg/kgDM). The addition of SA reduced the milk AFM1 concentrations (0.016 vs. 0.008 µg/kg) and transfer rates (2.19 vs. 0.77%). No differences were observed in health status, production and reproduction performance. The inclusion of SA in the diet of dairy cows reduce the risk in the most susceptible population.

Inhibition of dexamethasone-induced cytochrome P450-mediated mutagenicity and metabolism of aflatoxin B1 by Chinese medicinal herbs.

Oldenlandia diffusa (OD) and Scutellaria barbata (SB) have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for treating liver, lung and rectal tumours. We previously showed that they inhibited mutagenesis, DNA binding and metabolism of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP) bioactivated by Aroclor 1254-induced rat S9. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of OD and SB on the mutagenicity of AFB1 in Salmonella typhimurium TA100 using dexamethasone (DXM)-induced rat hepatic S9, on cytochrome P450-linked aminopyrine N-demethylase (APND) activity in DXM-induced hepatic microsomes and on the metabolism of AFB1 by DXM-induced S9 using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The experimental results showed that OD and SB consistently inhibited the mutagenicity of AFB1 bioactivated by either non-induced or DXM-induced S9. These effects correlated with the inhibition of cytochrome P450-linked APND activity in DXM-induced microsomes and with an inhibition of DXM-induced S9 mediated metabolism of [3H]AFB1 as determined by HPLC. Since DXM treatment has been associated with an induction of the CYP3 enzyme family, these results suggest that OD and SB may possess antimutagenic and antitumorigenic activity towards AFB1 through an inhibition of CYP3-mediated metabolism of AFB1.