How can mycotoxin contaminated grain safely be used for pig feed formulation?

By the time corn, wheat or other grain products arrive for manufacture into animal feeds at the feed mill; they have already had an opportunity both in the field and during harvest to become contaminated by mycotoxins. Avoidance of exposure to mycotoxins is practically impossible due to conventional large scale agricultural practices. Decontamination of mycotoxin containing grains is also impossible because of strong physical binding within the feed and the wide variety of mycotoxin types that exist as potential contaminants. Consequently farmers play a significant role in control, prevention and storage strategies to eliminate severe outbreaks of mycotoxins within feed products. Despite the close business links between the raw material producers and raw material users, feed mills are not in a position to continually assess the degree of potential contamination of their raw material stocks. It is also possible that suppliers change as contracts move in relation to optimisation of market interests and maximisation of profits. Consequently, the emphasis becomes placed upon the feed manufacturer and farmer to work together to protect the interest of the pigs that will be the end consumers of the potential mycotoxin contaminated feed. On a smallholder production unit, there are more options to control and prevent mycotoxins as the overall feed development and feeding operation is under the jurisdiction of the farmer, but as this traditional production method makes up just a tiny fraction of total pig production there needs to be satisfactory methods for the control and intervention in order to maximise pig production efficiency.

Here are some guidelines to end users for administration of feed which could be potentially contaminated with mycotoxins.

• For every new feed batch send a sample of suspected grains for professional analysis at an approved commercial mycotoxin analytical laboratory.
• Do a feed test sample on a healthy animal such as a pre-pubertal gilt and examine for clinical signs of mycotoxicosis, before widely using in the herd.
• Any grain that needs on-going storage should be kept in a controlled humidity and temperature environment.
• Use mechanical agitation of the grains in a grain cleaner to remove hulls and damaged kernels which contain the highest risk of mycotoxin contamination.
• Avoid the use of known contaminated grains to high risk end users such as piglets, pre-pubertal gilts and reproductive sows.

If these management strategies are followed, incidents that could cause mycotoxin induced disease can be prevented or severity of infection reduced. If the farmer wants to guarantee complete de-activation of the mycotoxins, then the use of a top quality mycotoxin binder is paramount. The risks of infection have been measured and quantified, the practical solution is now commercially available in the form of FUSION, the potential production and economic benefits are available to FUSION users.

The individual components contained in FUSION have specific characteristics and modes of actions that work synergistically to benefit pig feed formulations.

Fixes Mycotoxins

Utilises the Feed

Synergistic Effect

Immune Booster

Orego-Stim added

Nutritional Benefits

The optimisation of gut health management can be modified through the diet by three principles – competitive bacterial exclusion, bacterial antagonism and immune modulation which in turn affect the health and productive status of pigs respectively.

FUSION offers its users’ the ability to maximise nutrient availability and production performance. FUSION adsorbs mycotoxins into highly stable neutral bio-complexes without compromising nutrient adsorption whilst at the same time de-activating and eliminating the causative mycotoxin producing fungi organisms. As well as being the pioneer in a new generation of mycotoxin binders, FUSION incorporates the best components of natural growth promoters.

These added ingredients supplement the mycotoxin binding properties and will actually kill the fungal precursors to mycotoxins as well as preventing zoonotic infections. For optimal pathogenic protection results, FUSION should be used in conjunction with Orego-Stim Powder or Liquid. FUSION can be mixed homogeneously with other feed ingredients prior to pelleting and is compatible with all forms of application of medicinal prophylactic and therapeutic treatments. Mycotoxin binders can work in three ways. They can physically bind toxins and metal ions by adhesion. They can bind toxins by electrostatic charge or cation exchange capacity. They can eliminate fungi, the source of the toxins which are the cause of mycotoxin production. The development of a FUSION uses a blend of the best of each of these approaches at the required concentration to ensure that the harmful effects of mycotoxins in pig nutrition are negligible.

Conclusion

The rate of pig feed mycotoxin contamination is likely to increase in line with the trends witnessed in preceding years. The unwanted effects of mycotoxins can be prevented with an appropriate mycotoxin binder. The combination of adsorption and biotransformation technologies used in FUSION has given rise to a product which has the ability to deactivate the major groups of mycotoxins found in intensive pig production including Aflotoxins, Fumonisins, Trichothecenes, Ochratoxins, Vomitoins and Zearalenon. FUSION is a forward thinking and innovative product which has raised the threshold standard to equivalent mycotoxin binders on the marketplace.