TOXICITY BY INTRINSIC TOXINS FROM FOODS

OF ANIMAL ORIGIN
MARIA HARIS
LECTURER, CONSULTANT DIETITIAN
• Man has used numerous species of animals for food
• Men’s major supply of meat comes from seven main sources: pig,
cattle, buffalo, poultry, lamb, goat, and horse
• In addition, several wild animals and birds, camels, and marine
animals provide muscle food to meet the human needs
• Foods of animal origin are held in high esteem due to their valuable
nutritional contents as well as their social and cultural values
• Among poorer families the intake of animal proteins is usually below
the optimal levels
• The consumption is often far above the requirements among the rich
people
• Both these situations result in malnutrition
• The undernourished suffer from Kwashiorkor and similar ailments
• Those consuming a diet excessively high in proteins may experience
increased calcium loss
• Unlike plants, animals normally do not contain any intrinsic chemicals
that have harmful effects on human beings
• Any toxicity that results from the consumption of foods of animal origin
is either due to such animals feeding on rations that contain toxic
substances or the presence of extraneous contaminants
• Pesticide residues can accumulate in the flesh of animals feeding in
such areas where they are applied
• Some hormones are widely used in some countries to increase the
growth of steers
• These have been linked to cancer in humans
Toxicity from honey
• Honey bees may gather some poisonous substances while feeding on
toxic plants and deposit them in honey
• Quite often the substances toxic to humans may not have any adverse
effect on bees
• In other cases, toxic plants may also be poisonous to honey bees so
that the bees could themselves be poisoned before they can store the
honey
• Instances have been reported from various regions of the world
where honey bees feeding on poisonous plants produced honey toxic
to humans
• In areas where bee keeping has developed into an industry, the
producer ensures that bees do not feed on toxic flora and that toxic
honey does not reach the market
• Poisoning due to the consumption of toxic honey may occur when
inexperienced workers gather honey from wild bees and sell it in the
market
Toxicity from quail
• Among the favourite game birds, quail have been implicated in food
toxicity
• These migratory birds sometimes feed on poisonous plants and
accumulate coniine alkaloids in their tissues
• Coniine is fetal for humans at a level of 100mg
• Consumption of quail meet containing appreciable quantities of
coniine results in laboured respiration, paralysis, and asphyxia before
death
Toxicity from raw eggs
• Raw egg white contains avidin, which in the human intestinal tract forms
a stable complex with biotin
• And renders it biologically inactive and impairs the metabolism of the B
vitamins
• Thus, consumption of large quantities of raw eggs per day for several
weeks can produce symptoms associated with biotin avitaminosis
• Fatigue, depression, nausea, dermatitis, muscular pains
• Avidin is destroyed by heat so that fried, boiled and pouched eggs will
not cause any toxicity
• Raw egg white also contains a protein called “conalbumin” which
isolates and sequesters metallic contaminants (iron, copper) in egg white
Toxicity from milk
• When lactating cows feed on rations containing potentially toxic
substances, they tend to secrete them in milk
• Cows feeding on kale and other cruciferous plants secrete goitrogens
in milk
• In Tasmania, in 1956, such milk was responsible for the enlargement
of the thyroid in several children who consumed it regularly
• Similarly aflatoxins find their way into milk when cows feed on
contaminated rations infected with the mould
• Aflatoxins are carcinogenic in nature and result in cancer in human
beings
• Pesticide residues and antibiotics are also secreted in the milk of cows
that feed on forage containing the pesticides
• or those fed antibiotics in the ration or treated for some ailment
• These substances are responsible for toxicity to the consumer
• The milk in the USA is reported to contain a considerable amount of
female sex hormones, estrogen
• The cows in modern dairy farms are milked about 300 days a year
even while they are pregnant
• As the pregnancy in cow advances, more hormones appear in the milk
• Milk from a cow in the late stage of pregnancy contains up to 33 times
as much of an estrogen compound than milk from a non-pregnant
cow
• Bovine somatotropin (BST) also known as Bovine growth hormone
(BGH) is a protein produced in cattle
• Recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) is genetically
engineered which is injected into cows to increase their milk
production
• BGH-injected cows have an approximately 80% increase in the rate of
mastitis, which must be treated with antibiotics
• These antibiotics end up in the milk and milk products and finally in
the consumer
• BGH is linked to major breast, colon and prostate problems and can
also disturb normal hormone balance
• American Jersey cows used to produce just 1000 litres of milk per cow
in a year four decades ago
• While now they yield about 20,000 litres due to the use of BGH
injection and antibiotics in the feed
• Due to the use of antibiotics, resistant pathogenic strains are
emerging
• The use of BGH, when injected into the cow produces a hormone
called insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) in milk
• This is stable at pasteurization temperatures and also resistant to
human digestive enzymes, hence enters the blood system
• It is responsible for multiple forms of cancer in adults and puberty
symptoms in babies aged between 18 months and 4 years
• The use of oxytocin, a hormone that lets down the milk for milking
cows and buffaloes is widespread in Pakistan
• This hormone is released with the milk
• It disturbs the milk composition and results in changes, especially in
the electrolytes
• During the early stages of lactation there is an increase in the
cholesterol content in the milk with a decrease in protein level
• In the later stages, the reverse occurs
• Long-term use of BGH and oxytocin increases the homocysteine
levels that alter the metabolic activity
• Residues of these hormones are found in milk and meat of the
animals
Toxicity from poultry
• Broiler is a rapid and efficient converter of feed into meat protein
• The poultry feed consists of cereals, legumes, salts, vitamins, drugs as
well as wastes
• Meat and bone meal including recycled poultry waste containing
droppings, skins, feathers, blood, bones, intestines, egg shells,
hatchery waste etc. are all used in poultry rations
• There is hence, the possibility of accumulation of chemical toxins in
poultry meat due to the use of poultry offal’s, feathers, blood and
bone meals
• The feed additives for the poultry include antibiotics that are used as
a prophylactic measure and treatment of the birds
• These are often over-prescribed and used persistently and sometimes in
inadequate dosage
• The residues of these antibiotics represent a potential hazard to human
health
• There is a danger of the emergence of resistant bacterial strains besides
possible destruction of the useful gastrointestinal tract flora
• Some drugs may cause direct toxicity or allergic reactions in the consumer
• The poultry birds have a very short life of a few weeks as compared with
the cattle in which BSE appeared a few years back
• The effect of defective feed, antibiotics and other drugs may not become
visible in the birds
• However in man, poultry meat may one day be diagnosed as a causative
agent for some chronic disorders of unknown origin
Toxicity from beef and mutton
• Beef cattle, sheep and goats are normally grazed in the fields
• At the form they are provided with feed consisting of oil seed cake, wheat straw
and other ingredients
• Unlike poultry, these are not fed drugs and antibiotics as prophylactic measures
• They can pick up enteric organisms from the pastures
• Infection of cattle by Taenia saginata, the beef tapeworm occurs from grazing
in the fields
• There seems to be no record in Pakistan, but people may be infected with this
worm that results in
• Indigestion, diarrhoea, constipation, vomiting, lethargy, loss of appetite and anaemia
• Inspection of meat, proper cooking and proper disposal of human excreta will
prevent contamination with this worm
• Mad cow disease (BSE – Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) affected
thousands of cattle in Great Britain
• The cattle were nourished with defective feed that contained meat and
bone meals derived from scrapie-infected ruminants
• Such a situation is not likely to arise in Pakistan where most meat animals
are owned by small farmers and are grazed in the fields
• The meat gets contaminated during transportation and display at sale
points
• In Pakistan, meat is carried from the slaughterhouse to the shops on any
available mode of transport, handcart, bicycle, donkey cart, rickshaw and
others
• In the shops, it is displayed in the open where it accumulates
contaminants from the environment (dust, smoke and microorganism
from the atmosphere)
• According to a study, the majority of meat samples in Peshawar were
found highly contaminated with heavy metals and bacteria and were
considered unfit for human consumption
• Meat needs to be transported in refrigerated vehicles and displayed
inside fly and insect-proof shops
Toxicity from fish
• Amongst the foods of animal origin, fish are the most common source of toxicity in
humans
• Some fish contain intrinsic toxic compounds while others gather them in their tissues by
feeding on toxic substances
• Fish poisoning (tetrodotoxism) occurs mostly in China and Japan when some species of
puffer fish are consumed
• The poison tetrodotoxin is found mainly in the ovaries, liver, intestines, and skin of
various puffer fish species
• Symptoms of tetrodotoxism usually begin with a numbness, tingling or prickling
sensation of the lips. Tongue and cheeks within a few minutes after eating the poisonous
fish
• This becomes complicated by weakness and paralysis of all muscles, vomiting, low blood
pressure and tachycardia
• Death may occur within half an hour due to respiratory paralysis
• Some species of shellfish produce a poison within their bodies and
become poisonous
• The consumption of raw and cooked red whelk which produces a
tetramine may cause nausea, vomiting, anorexia, weakness, fatigue,
dizziness, photophobia and dryness of the mouth
• Several species of shellfish and others become poisonous by feeding
on microscopic life such as toxic marine algae
• The toxic substances do not affect the physiology of the shellfish but
cause poisoning in human consumers
• The illness begins with a numbness in lips, tongue and fingertips that
may appear within a few minutes after eating contaminated fish
• This feeling is followed by numbness in the legs, arms and neck
• As the illness progresses, respiratory distress becomes more severe
and death may occur from respiratory paralysis within 2-12 hours
• If the patient survives for 12 hours, there is every chance of recovery
• There is no easy way of differentiating toxic fish from safe ones
• It is best to eat only the fish that is commonly eaten by the natives
• Some common fishes may be toxic due to the consumption of toxic
substances
• It is advised that the fish cooking water, liver, head, and roe must be
discarded
• Abnormally large and all oversized fish should be treated with
suspicion