COMPARATIVE CYTOTOXIC ANALYSIS THROUGH MTT ASSAY OF VARIOUS FUNGI ISOLATED FROM RICE STRAW FEEDINGS OF DEGNALA DISEASE AFFECTED ANIMALS

The objective of current study was to investigate the comparative cytotoxic effects of various fungi suspected as the etiological agent(s) of Degnala disease. Several toxigenic potential containing candidate fungi extracted from the rice straw feedings of Degnala affected animals were subjected for comparative cytotoxic analysis through MTT assay on vero cell line. There were five different species/genera of candidate fungi including Aspergillus flavus, A. niger, A. terrus, Fusarium and Penicillium all with variable toxigenic ability. Mycotoxin containing extracts of all these fungi were added in the DMEM+F-12 (with 5% FBS) media used for the exponential growth of vero cell line on 96 well cell culture plate. After an incubation period of 24 hours all the experimental groups were compared with the control on the basis of optical density (OD) value. Fusarium showed a very significant (p-value = 0.006) decrease in the number of live cells, then was the A. flavus (p-value = 0.039) as compared to the control. The current findings revealed that various toxigenic fungal isolates are not having equal cytotoxic potential. This study can be helpful in locating the actual cause of Degnala disease in bovine.