Stella M. Chiacchiera

IntroductionMycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by fungi. They are unavoidable contaminants in foods and feeds, exerting harmful effects upon animal and human health39. The most important mycotoxins in naturally contaminated foods and feeds are aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxins, zearalenone, T-2 toxin, deoxynivalenol and fumonisins7,32. Aflatoxin contaminated feeds are a severe threat ...

1. IntroductionCommercial mixed feeds are a basic element in modern animal production. They contain mixtures of home grown cereals and imported commodities among other ingredients. The use of such ingredients inevitably leads to the contamination of the final mixed feed with fungi [1]. Mycotoxins are fungal secondary metabolites associated with severe toxic effects to vertebrates and produced by i ...

Introduction Mycotoxins are a group of structurally diverse secondary fungal metabolites that occur as grain contaminants. They can cause serious problems in livestock resulting in substantial economic losses (Huwig et al. 2001). Two of the most common mycotoxins found in animal feed, aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and zearalenone (ZEA), cause food- and feed-borne intoxications called mycotoxicoses (CAST 200 ...

Originally published in the Journal of Applied MicrobiologyIntroductionSilage consists in green forage preserved by spontaneous lactic fermentation under anaerobic conditions (Miller 2001). The primary purpose of making silage is to maximize the preservation of original nutrients in the forage crop with minimum losses in the nutritional quality that allows its use as fodder during periods of feed ...