Evaluation of aflatoxin and fumonisin in the diet of Pacific White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) on their performance and health

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of aflatoxin and fumonisin on the performance and health status of Litopenaeus vannamei juveniles and the efficiency of an anti mycotoxin additive (AMA). A 42-day trial with of six treatments and four replicates: (CONT - diet without mycotoxins or AMA, CETX - diet with the addition of AMA, AFLA - diet contaminated with 1067.8 ng/g Aflatoxins, FUMO - diet contaminated with 1715.3 ng/g Fumonisins, AETX - diet with addition of Aflatoxins and AMA; FETX - diet with addition of Fumonisins and AMA). The replicates were randomly assigned to 24 aquaria with individual biological filters. Water quality was monitored for temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, nitrogenous compounds, alkalinity, hardness and salinity. At the end of the experiment all animals were counted and weighed individually to determine survival (%), mean final weight (g), biomass gain (g) and specific growth rate (%). The hepatopancreas of 16 animals per treatment were collected to perform histopathological evaluation. For water quality variables there is no differences among treatments. Survival was high (>90%) with no significant differences between treatments. For all other performance parameters significant differences were observed due to contamination. Feeding shrimp an aflatoxin or fumonisin contaminated diet resulted in reduced weight, biomass gain, and specific growth rate. The addition of an anti mycotoxin additive compensated these losses and even resulted in significant better growth for the fumonisin contaminated group. Histological damage was observed in all contaminated treatments, although the damage was less pronounced in the treatments containing the anti mycotoxin additive. Results from this study suggest that aflatoxins and fumonisins negatively affect growth and performance of shrimp and that this tested anti mycotoxin additive has proven efficacy in compensating these losses.