Abstract
ABSTRACT. Cardozo S.V., Cardozo T.S.F., Teixeira Filho W.L. Ferreira, A.M.R. & Lopes C.W.G. [Histopathological changes in cardiac Japanese quails (Coturnix japonica) experimentally intoxicated with sub-lethal dose of aflatoxin.] Alterações histopatológicas cardíacas em codornas japonesas (Coturnix japonica) intoxicadas experimentalmente com dose subletal de aflatoxina. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinária, 33(4):210-214, 2011. Escola de Ciências da Saúde, Curso de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade do Grande Rio, Rua Prof. José de Souza Herdy, 1160, Duque de Caxias, RJ 25071-202, Brasil. E-mail: sergianvc@gmail.com The aim of this study was to identify and describe the histopathological lesions in cardiac Japanese quail (Coturnix japonica) experimentally intoxicated with sub-lethal dose of aflatoxin. A total of 40 birds was taken directly from the incubator after birth and taken to the lab, and kept in two metal cages, according to the experimental group and properly heated using incandescent bulbs until the end of the experiment. On the 7th day after birth 20 birds were poisoned orally by gavage technique with aflatoxin at a dose of 0.04 mg / kg body weight (Group I) and the remaining animals were kept free of mycotoxin poisoning (Group control). On days 6, 11, 18 and 25 after intoxication (DAI), twenty birds were euthanized and necropsied at a time, five of each group. The thoracic cavity was opened and inspected the demand for gross lesions in the heart and then this body was collected in 10% buffered formalin for processing and optical microscopy study. Only in group I observed was the presence of areas of vacuolar degeneration, and interstitial edema, when compared with samples from the control group. Cardiomyocyte nuclei were pyknotic and showed granular chromatin. These findings were only observed from 11 DAI, and related to the process of poisoning of birds by aflatoxin.