Effect of Diet on Accumulation of Gossypol in the Organs of Swine

A study was made to determine the effect of diet on the accumulation of gossypol in the organs of growing pigs. The dietary variables tested were: 1) soybean meal; 2) high quality cottonseed meal alone; 3) with added lysine; 4) with injected iron dextran; 5) with dietary iron; and 6) with an exhaustively extracted cottonseed meal. All diets were fed at a 15% protein level and contained 0.06% free gossypol except the diet containing the extracted cottonseed meal. After 15 to 17 days the pigs were killed and the organs were analyzed for free and bound gossypol. No differences in the gossypol content of the organs resulted from diets 1 to 3. The free gossypol was lower and the bound was higher in the livers and spleens of the pigs injected with iron. The greatest effects on organ gossypol resulted from the dietary iron in diet 5. The gossypol values for organs of pigs consuming the exhaustively extracted cottonseed meal were lower than corresponding values from the organs of pigs fed diets 1 through 4.