Fumonisin toxicosis in swine: an overview of porcine pulmonary edema and current perspectives.

Abstract
Fumonisin toxicosis in swine was named porcine pulmonary edema (PPE) after outbreaks of a fatal disease in pigs fed Fusarium verticillioides (F. moniliforme)-contaminated corn screenings from the 1989 corn crop in Iowa, Illinois, and Georgia. Pigs that died had severe pulmonary edema, which has not been identified in other species after exposure to fumonisins. The disease has been reproduced experimentally by feeding of naturally contaminated corn, F. verticillioides culture material, and by intravenous administration of fumonisin B1 (FB1). Hepatic lesions consisting of apoptosis, necrosis, and hepatocyte proliferation also are observed. As in other species, alterations in clinical pathology reflect hepatic injury as well as elevated serum cholesterol concentration. In chronic studies, esophageal plaques, hyperplastic hepatic nodules, and right ventricular hypertrophy were found. In pigs, as in other species, fumonisin alters sphingolipid biosynthesis, with the greatest alterations in sphingosine and sphi...