Contamination by mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) is a serious problem in animal nutrition worldwide, especially in pigs, which leading to vomiting, loss of appetite, reduced weight gain and increased susceptibility to diseases. Many strategies have been developed to reduce the toxic effects of DON, including physical adsorption and microbial detoxification of DON. Improvement of intestinal morphology and function and enhancement of the immune and anti-oxidative function of animals may be useful for reducing the toxicity of DON.

Antimicrobial peptides are small cationic molecules that are part of the non-specific defense system and have been shown to kill bacteria, modulate bacterial infections and coordinate host responses to infection. The composite antimicrobial peptides GLAM?180# (CAP) containing antibacterial lactoferrin peptides, plant defensins and active yeast are used to alleviate toxic effect of DON on piglets by Dr. YIN Yulong’s group at Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ISA). As expected, the results shows that treatment with CAP may be able to improve feed conversion, immune function, anti-oxidation capacity and intestinal morphology, alleviate organ damage, and promote intestinal epithelial cell proliferation and protein synthesis, indicating the protective role of CAP in piglets challenged with DON.

The findings were published recently in Journal of Animal Science (doi: 10.2527/jas.2013-6426 and doi: 10.2527/jas.2013-6427). For the paper, please click http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23965387 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23965392.

The studies were jointly supported by grants from the 973 National Projects Subject (2009CB118806), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31001016), The national science and technology support program funding (2012BAD39B03), Province Natural Science Fund Project (12JJ2020), Hunan Strategy Emerging Industry Science Research Project (2011GK4061) and Guangzhou Glam Biotechnology Co., Ltd..