Dra. Ana Paula Bracarense: Micotoxinas e Mudanças Climáticas | Ep. 265

·53 min·5 clips

Why do pigs on contaminated feed get more pneumonia and fail to respond to vaccines?

Host Guilherme Brantes introduces the episode and guest Dr. Ana Paula Bracarense, a veterinarian and researcher specializing in mycotoxins and animal health. Dr. Bracarense shares her academic background, including her post-doctorate in France at INRA, where she focused on mycotoxins using swine as a model due to their similarity to humans. She explains that mycotoxins are a persistent problem linked to plant growth and fungi, with climate change altering the occurrence of toxin types. The discussion centers on corn and soy as primary swine feed in Brazil and the tension between crop productivity and mycotoxin resistance. Dr. Bracarense details that while acute mycotoxin poisoning is rare today, low-dose exposure causes chronic issues like intestinal permeability, inflammation, and immune suppression. She identifies fumonisins, deoxynivalenol, and zearalenone as the most concerning mycotoxins currently. The episode explores how mycotoxin mixtures in feed have synergistic toxic effects, which legal limits fail to address because they regulate single toxins only. Dr. Bracarense describes traditional in vivo animal testing models and her work with tissue explants as an alternative to reduce animal use and cost. She notes that these explants allow testing of multiple mycotoxins together to mimic real-world contamination. The conversation touches on human health implications, including research linking deoxynivalenol and E. coli to colon cancer risk in animal models. Dr. Bracarense mentions that children and adolescents have higher exposure to deoxynivalenol through wheat-based diets. She also discusses common mistakes in animal experimentation, such as insufficient sample size and poor planning of timelines. The episode concludes with Dr. Bracarense recommending Carl Sagan's book 'The Demon-Haunted World' for its insights on scientific methodology and critical thinking.

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