Subchronic toxicity test for two thermotolerant filamentous fungi used for single cell protein production.

Safety evaluations of two thermotolerant filamentous fungi, Cephalosporium eichhorniae 152 (C. 152) and Rhizopus chinensis 180 (R. 180), grown on a sugar-salts medium were carried out through feeding the biomases to rats at 20% or 40% dietary levels for 90 days. There was a control group fed soybean meal. Weight gain and feed consumption for rats fed 20% C. 152 were equal to those for the control animals, but were depressed in the other three groups, especially the rats fed R. 180. All animals appeared normal and healthy except that transient alopecia was found for a short duration in the fungi-treated rats in the initial period. The cause of this lesion is not clear. At the end of the feeding trial, clinical determinations of constituents in blood and urine samples were conducted. The animals were autopsied and weights for four organs were taken. Histopathological examinations for 26 different tissues were carried out. Mild changes were found in both C. 152 and R. 180-treated rats but most of the these were not considered to be related to treatment.