toxins Article Effects of Dietary Ochratoxin A on Growth Performance and Intestinal Apical Junctional Complex of Juvenile Grass Carp (Ctenopharyngodon idella) Xin Liu 1,†, Pei Wu 1,2,3,†, Wei-Dan Jiang 1,2,3, Yang Liu 1,2,4, Jun Jiang 1,2,3, Sheng-Yao Kuang 5, Ling Tang 5, Xiao-Qiu Zhou 1,2,6,* and Lin Feng 1,2,6,* 1 Animal Nutrition Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China;
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[email protected] (J.J.) 2 Fish Nutrition and Safety Production University Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu 611130, China 3 Key Laboratory of Animal Disease-Resistant Nutrition, Ministry of Education, Chengdu 611130, China 4 Key Laboratory of Animal Disease-Resistant Nutrition and Feed, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Chengdu 611130, China 5 Animal Nutrition Institute, Sichuan Academy of Animal Science, Sichuan Animtech Feed. Co., Ltd., Chengdu 610066, China;
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[email protected] (L.F.) † These two authors contributed to this work equally. Abstract: Ochratoxin A (OTA) contamination widely occurs in various feed ingredients and food crops, potentially posing a serious health threat to animals. In this research, 1260 juvenile grass carp were separately fed with seven distinct experimental diets (0, 406, 795, 1209, 1612, 2003 and 2406 µg of OTA/kg of diet) for 60 consecutive days to evaluate OTA’s toxic effect on the intestinal apical junctional complex (including the tight junction (TJ) and the adherents junction (AJ)) and Citation: Liu, X.; Wu, P.; Jiang, W.-D.; the underlying action mechanisms.