CHANGNING YU

Phd student
University of Manitoba

I am Changning Yu, a second-year Ph.D. student from the Department of Biosystems Engineering at the University of Manitoba.
Deoxynivalenol (DON), a mycotoxin produced as a secondary metabolite by Fusarium graminearum fungi, frequently contaminates commodities used in pig feed. Consequently, the consumption of mycotoxin contaminated cereals has been shown to produce a neurotoxic effect, cause gastrointestinal lesions and digestive discomfort leading to reduced feed intake and decreased animal production, and suppressed immune functions resulting in increased susceptibility to infectious disease.
Sodium metabisulfite (SMBS) is a sulfite reducing agent that is commonly added to animal feed to improve protein digestibility by cleaving disulfide bonds. SMBS is not stable in aqueous or acidic solutions such as those found in pig stomachs. When exposed to these conditions, SMBS rapidly degrades into sulfur dioxide, which can irritate the gastric system, furthering digestive discomfort and reducing feed intake. Therefore, although SMBS can effectively detoxify DON in contaminated grains, if simply added to the feed, little SMBS will be delivered to the small intestine where it can properly function, leading to ineffective detoxification and exacerbated deleterious effects on the pigs.
This poster is to encapsulate SMBS into pH-sensitive polymer (Eudragit L100-55) nanofibrous mats for its delivery to the small intestine and to evaluate its efficacy on DON detoxification in simulated intestinal fluids using IPEC-J2 cells in vitro.