Complex etiology and pathology of mycotoxic nephropathy in South African pigs

Spontaneous nephropathy in pigs seen in South Africa was found to have multi-mycotoxic etiology involving several mycotoxins such as ochratoxin A (OTA), penicillic acid (PA) and fumonisin B 1 (FB 1 ) in addition to a not yet identified mycotoxin. Contamination levels of OTA were comparatively low (67–75 μg/kg) in contrast to high contamination levels of FB 1 (5,289–5,021 μg/kg) and PA (149–251 μg/kg). A heavy contamination with Gibberella fujikuroi var. moniliformis and Penicillium aurantiogriseum complex (mainly P. polonicum ) was observed in the fed forages in contrast to the light contamination with Aspergillus ochraceus, P. verrucosum and P. citrinum . The pathomorphological picture of this nephropathy was found to differ from the classical description of mycotoxic porcine nephropathy as originally made in Scandinavia by the extensive vascular changes.