Utilização de vagens de Prosopis juliflora na alimentação de bovinos e efeitos teratogênicos em ratos.

Abstract

The objectives of this study was to demonstrate that the use of 30% of Prosopis juliflora pods added in the diet of cattle does not cause intoxication, to study the toxicity of the pods for horses, to develop an experimental model using pregnant rats to determine the possible teratogenic effects, check if there is a loss of toxicity between pods stored and newly collected, and to determine whether there are differences in toxicity between the pods collected in different localities. The first study was divided into three experiments. In Experiment 1, two cattle ingested during one year mesquite pods, equivalent to 30% of the total dry matter intake. No experimental animal showed nervous signs. In Experiment 2, two horses received pods in amounts equivalent to 1% of body weight (bw) for four months and equivalent to 1.5% of pc, for another three months. In experiment 3 two horses received pods ad libitum for one month. In none of the hordes colic or nervous signs due to the formation of fitobezoars were observed. In the second study, thirty-pregnant female Wistar rats were randomly separated into five groups: a control (G1) and four experimental (G2, G3, G4 and G5), each with six animals. The animals in groups G2 and G3 were fed diets containing 70% of pods of P. juliflora newly collected in the municipalities of Itacuruba, Pernambuco and Patos, Paraíba, respectively, the groups G4 and G5 were fed pods from the same places , but stored for a period of 6 months. The control group received the same diet without pods of P. juliflora. Different malformations were observed in fetuses of rats that were fed 70% of pods of P. juliflora in the diet during pregnancy indicating that the plant is teratogenic. It is concluded that: cattle can be fed mesquite pods in amounts equivalent to 30% of dry matter intake for periods of up to one year; probably the ability of the pods to form fitobezoars in the intestine of horses is lost through storage, and that the pods of P. juliflora are teratogenic to Wistar rats and that the toxicity decreases with storage.