Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi. The two main species of mycotoxin producing fungi which impact poultry production are Aspergillus and Fusarium. Aspergillus is a tropical and semi-tropical fungus which produces toxins known as aflatoxins. Aflatoxin is a hepato-carcinogen. Aflotoxins have been the subject of most scientific investigation concerning mycotoxins. Fusarium fungi grow in temperate climates and they produce a much more diverse variety of toxins. The most studied mycotoxins of Fusarium fungi include deoxynivalenol (DON, vomitoxin), nivalenol, T-2 toxin, zearalenone, diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), fumonisins, fusaric acid and many more.

One way of studying the impact of mycotoxin consumption in poultry feeds is to artificially include them into the diet. The table below summarises some of the findings from experimental mycotoxin infection in poultry.

Effects of feeding diets contaminated with mycotoxins to poultry

Susceptibility to Mycotoxin contamination

Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) is one raw material feed source that has increased in the last decade as a result of the growing biofuel and ethanol industries especially in Brazil and the USA. Corn is used for ethanol production in the USA and sugarcane in the USA. The protein rich by-products of these industries are almost exclusively used in the animal feed industry. Although DDGS does not have a uniform amino acid profile, supplementary purified amino acids can make up for any deficit which is a common practice in the poultry nutrition industry. Many storehouses for harvested corn or sugarcane DDGS are directly exposed to the atmosphere and are at risk of infection with fungal borne mycotoxins during storage. Storage facilities for such raw feeds cannot be sampled in the volumes necessary to thoroughly quantify the problem of mycotoxin infection. This is because there are too many sites of production in isolated regions of their respective countries, and the volumes in each site are too large to physically sample adequately. This fact may be disputed, but the numbers of mycotoxin samples is a tiny percentage of the sheer bulk volumes of feed that pass through feed markets. Consequently, mycotoxin concentrations in raw feed ingredients such as DDGS are not fully assessed throughout the whole of the food chain, though some regional production sites may actually be over represented in their sampling analysis. DDGS are particularly susceptible to the problem of mycotoxin contamination. This is because the mycotoxins bind to parts of the cells which contain protein and lipids. The available sugars and carbohydrates which are used for ethanol production are extracted from the raw corn or sugarcane in the distillation process so that the net effect is to concentrate the mycotoxins within the DDGS. It has been estimated that if mycotoxins are present in corn which is to be used for ethanol production then they will be concentrated three times in DDGS produced from this corn. In addition to this, if DDGS are not dried quickly enough, airborne mycotoxins will be able to re-contaminate DDGS prior to their storage.

It seems unlikely that the main core of feed and food production which relies heavily on product specialisation, mechanisation, transport and storage is likely to change drastically. Indeed it cannot do if the status quo of production or any desire for increased annual production is to be achieved. Consequently in order to alleviate potential toxicological problems in poultry caused from mycotoxin contamination, the only real practical solution in today’s marketplace is for a highly active mycotoxin adsorbent. Until now, mycotoxin binders have offered a similar status of benefits to the user. The development of FUSION from Meriden Animal Health Limited has been exclusively designed to optimize the complex biological associations that take place within the gut of species of monogastric animals including broilers and layers by optimisation of the nutritional benefits of the feed.

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

                      F     Fixes Mycotoxins

                      U     Utilises the Feed

                      S     Synergistic Effect

                       I      Immune Booster

                      O     Orego-Stim added

                      N     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 poultry respectively.

There has been much advancement in intensive poultry management which has been responsible for the increase in output. Some of these technologies include: breed developments for reducing days to harvest in broilers; vertically integrated production systems; abiotic standardisation of production systems such as feed control, temperature and lighting etc. These technological breakthroughs have been improving profits as a result of increased production but with each passing year profit margins become tighter as novel technologies become standard practice. 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.

Conclusion

The rate of poultry feed mycotoxin contamination is likely to increase in line with the trend 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 poultry 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.

References

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