Abstract:
Mycotoxins as secondary metabolites are known to be common contaminants of both human food and animal
feed. If ingested in minute but regular doses, they are known to cause suppression of the immune system and
therefore, alter pathogenesis of many infectious diseases. Trypanosoma congolense an intravascular parasite is
the most important cause of African animal trypanosomosis. The aim of this work was to investigate the effect of
aflatoxin B-1, a common mycotoxin on transmissibility of T. congolense. Female Swiss white mice were intraperitoneally
injected with 0.05mg/kg body weight aflatoxin B-1 every after 3 days upto 10 times and on the 21st
day were infected with T. congolense. Parasitological parameters including weight, packed cell volume and
parasitemia levels of aflatoxin B-1-injected-T. congolense-infected mice were compared with those of T.
congolense-infected mice. In a separate study, aflatoxin B-1-injected-T. congolense-infected and T. congolenseinfected
mice (12 each) were fed on by 400 tsetse flies. Some of these flies were used to cyclically infect 100
uninfected mice. ANOVA and mean separation were used to determine differences between the test and control
mice. It was observed that there was significant difference (p˂0.05) in body weight but no significant difference
in packed cell volume, establishment of infection within the tsetse flies and subsequent transmission to
uninfected mice. It was concluded that aflatoxin B-1 has an effect on pathogenesis and hence transmissibility of
T. congolense.
