Tolerance of pigs to sorghum ergot (Claviceps africana) during growth and finishing, and effect on conception of replacement gilts
J. S. Kopinski A C , B. J. Blaney A and J. A. Downing BA Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, LMB No. 4, Yeerongpilly, Qld 4105, Australia.
B Department of Animal Science, University of Sydney, Camden, NSW 2570, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: John.Kopinski@dpi.qld.gov.au
Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 48(5) 672-679 https://doi.org/10.1071/EA07326
Submitted: 14 September 2007 Accepted: 16 November 2007 Published: 7 April 2008
Abstract
Two batches of sorghum infected with ergot were incorporated into nutritionally balanced grower and finisher diets that contained 0, 5 or 10 mg alkaloid/kg (0, 4 or 8 mg dihydroergosine/kg), or 10 mg alkaloid/kg (8 mg dihydroergosine/kg) plus 1% zeolite. The contents of ergot sclerotia in the 10 mg/kg diets were ~2% in one batch and 4% in the other; the latter batch had a heavy secondary fungal infection of Cerebella sp., which tends to limit alkaloid accumulation. These diets were each fed to four male and four female pigs as they grew from 20 to 90 kg. There were no deleterious effects on growth, feed intake and conversion even with lower plasma prolactin of 0.1 µg/L in ergot-fed pigs compared with ~1 µg/L in the control pigs. Zeolite did not counteract the ergot reduction of prolactin and had no effect on performance. Male pigs were then slaughtered, but females continued to be fed the diets for a further 3 months, when they were brought into oestrus and artificially inseminated. One month after pregnancy was confirmed, they were slaughtered and fertility was assessed. There were no significant differences in the numbers of corpora lutea or embryos between pigs fed ergot and control diets.
Additional keyword: mycotoxin.
Acknowledgements
This work was funded in part by Australian Pork Limited, the Grains Research and Development Corporation of Australia and the Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Queensland. Thanks to Mike Magee for care and maintenance of the animals, Peter Martin and Adam Pytko for chemical analysis, Sally-Anne Murray for alkaloid analysis, Sara Willis for AUSPIG diet formulations and Gary Blight for statistical analysis. The assistance of Brett Knight, Andrew Kelly with blood collection, Kit Parke with reproductive tract recovery at the abattoir and Ross McKenzie for assistance with corpora lutea assessments is gratefully acknowledged.
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