Effect of dietary aflatoxin B-1 on growth, fecundity and tissue accumulation in gibel carp during the stage of gonad development

A 24-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary aflatoxin B-1 (AFB(1)) on growth, physiological responses, histological changes, fecundity and accumulation in gibel carp (Carassius auratus gibelio) during the stage of gonad development. Triplicate groups of gibel carp ( initial body weight 57.6 +/- 0.1 g) were fed with three semipurified diets (Diets 1 to 3) designed to contain 0, 20, and 2000 mu g AFB(1) kg(-1) diets (determined level was 3.3, 22.3, and 1646.5 mu g AFB(1) kg(-1) diet, respectively). The results showed that, after 24 weeks of AFB1 exposure, there was no significant difference in final body weight between AFB(1) exposure groups and the control group. No external changes, unusual behavior or significant difference in mortality were observed in the fish fed with AFB(1). There were no significant differences in feeding rate (FR), specific growth rate (SGR) or feed efficiency (FE) between the control and experimental groups. Fish fed with various levels of AFB(1) showed no significant differences in activities of serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) compared to the control group. No significant histological lesions in hepatopancreas and midgut were identified between the control and increasing AFB(1) treatments. However, gonadosomatic index (GSI), absolute brood amount (AF), relative brood amount (RF) and oocyte diameter in the groups fed the diets with AFB(1) were significantly lower than the control group. AFB(1) accumulation in fish ovaries and muscles increased significantly as the AFB(1) concentration increased in diets. AFB(1) in muscles in all the groups were all below the safety limitation of 5 mu g kg(-1) wet weight. These results indicate that AFB(1) exposure up to approximately 2000 mu g AFB(1) kg(-1) diet showed no evident effect on growth and liver function of gibel carp, but it would do harm to fecundity of the fish. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.