Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi. When ingested by livestock, mycotoxins can cause production losses, ill thrift and reduced disease resistance. Initially the effects of mycotoxins may go unnoticed, however with prolonged ingestion the effects of mycotoxins can become more pronounced. The effects of mycotoxins range greatly depending on the mycotoxins present and the species...
Hi, this is quite an interesting read. As for a remedy, aside from all the specialised produced products out there to prevent absorption of aflotoxins etc., wouldn't adding Kaolin to the feed help as a preventive measure? (you do need very good quality kaolin low on pcbs and heavy metals though) It would be the most cost effective product and I guess today that counts more than ever in this worldwide economical crisis.
I look forward to your replies.
Its a concise information on Mycotoxins. However, India being the largest milk producer in the world with industry dominated by backyard to semi organised to organised farms. I have seen people producing feed that are used for feeding animals for almost 3 months. Physically there is lot of caking up and needless to mention the heat, humidity conducive for fungal growth.
After extensive discussions and observations with experts here, Iam of the opinion that Mycotoxins are NOT such a major issue for Cattle as much as it is for Poultry. Nobody adds a toxin binder to Cattle feed here with few exceptions cannot be ruled out. The levels of mycotoxins differs in Poultry between layer to broiler to breeder and unless there is exceptionally high levels of intake for prolonged period of time, I dont see mycotoxins are a issue for Dairy cattle.
Dear Dr. Shankar An Interesting Conclusion from a Scientific Person But, just because we donot observe the symptoms of Mycotoxins in Dairy Cattle, can we negate the affect of Subclinical Mycotoxicosis?
As Mr Moore wrote, it’s now established that ruminants can be sensitive to mycotoxins. Of course we can not said that ruminants are as sensitive than pigs or poultry are. But until few years ago, everybody were thinking that ruminants were protected by their rumine. However more and more studies are showing that it’s not true, and in some case the rumine will degraded mycotoxins in metabolites even more dangerous (for example it’s the case of the zearalenon).
Most of time, the mycotoxins in dairy production will not be the only one reason of a disorder, but they will increase the impact of an unbalance ration, or will decrease the immune response of a viral or bacterial disease. So it’s very complicated to diagnose a mycotoxicosis in ruminants.
It has also been proved the carcinogenic effect of the Aflatoxins M1 (metabolite of the Aflatoxin B1) into the dairy milk for humans. That why most of the countries worldwide have a dedicated legislation on the acceptable level of Aflatoxin M1 in the milk…
To get back to the Mr Moore document, I’m completely agreed with him about the important necessity to use “a proven and tested product, which will adsorb mycotoxin and prevent adsorption by the animal”. It very hard to insure this capacity but with the product T5X we completed it ! We proved in 9 different herds in France that we choose for their possible mycotoxins contaminations, that when we added this product the milk production increased by 2 litter, the protein and fat yields increased, but also the somatic cell counts of the milk decreased and the ingestion increased. All these parameters shown that also in commercial farms, with contamination levels that could be easily found in France, mycotoxins can be considered as negligible. In an other trial in Italy, always in farms, we reduced the level of aflatoxin M1 into the milk by over 60% only 2 days after starting the distribution of the same product.
Of course, there is still many things to discover on this topic, but at least now it proved that ruminants are sensitive to mycotoxins, and there is at least one solution available on the market to counteract their effects !
Staying at your disposal for further explanations,
Dr.tadimeti Hanumanta
Hello Dr Tadimeti, Thank you for your comments. I think you will find many tried and tested product on the market which are effective against many mycotoxins. Meriden have a range under the Fusion Banner which are very effect also. For more information please go to the Meriden website and express your interest there.
Johan De Paepe
Hello Johan. Interms of what products, in simple terms not all clays and HSAC work the same and even if you intend to use a very cheap one, again do some research and determine that it will bind the major toxins as Afb1, Fumonism and even ergovaline. There are still cheap binders available which are still around the $1-2 mark. The point I like to make is that you do not need to spend the large amount of money which has been the case in the past. Again if you would like specific information please contact the Meriden web site. Cheers
Rajesh Aggarwal
Hello Rajesh, I do agree in principle in what you do say. The topic of mycotoxins and how they impact cattle product is probably less understood than many other species. On factor that does impact this is production, and in India the level of production is much lower than say the US or Aust and because of this the cattle in India would appear more tolerant. Basically the higher the production the greater the impact.
In saying that, there is also a big difference between feeding mould and mycotoxins, and just because see mould does not mean you have mycotoxins. Remember that mycotoxins are secondary mycotoxins, and tend to only be produced when the mould is stressed. I have feed some silages here during the drought which has been covered in mould and not had any clinical issues.
I would like to point out that the point of the article is to highlight the fact that for cattle the risk of mycotoxins ingestion is greater from forages and not grains, and also that the mould and toxin production in forages decrease from the ground up and the highest risks are closer to the ground, so cutting the pasture lower or grazing lower to the ground increases the risk.
Again it will depends on the toxins, as with ergot alkaloids they will affect animals at whatever level of production, and personally this range of toxins have more of an impact on cattle production that many others. I will be doing another article on this in the coming weeks.
Erwan Leroux
Hello Erwan, I will not comment much on your comments as I think that anyone who can try and sell their own product of someone else's article does not have very high work ethics. Coments on the article would be fine, but to sell your own product please do all the research yourself.
As to your points, cattle are very tolerant of ZEA, mainly due to how they metabolise it, and also explains why pigs are not.
Catlle are very tolerant of many mycotoxins, and with many there are some clinical signs for most. Even Afb1 can be detected in milk, but also higher liver enzymes levels can help identify it. Ergot Alkaloids have very clear signs, but most often mis diagnosed. Does ZEA and DON really affect cattle. I am not totally convinced yet, although there is work that shows associations, but nothing definite, and when binders are used and we see improvements, again it is only associative as there are so many other variables.
Thanks for your comments but please next time write your own article to sell your own product.
Cheers
Dear Mr Moore, I apologize myself if you were disturb on my comment. The aim wasn’t to promote a product but to support your speech on the possible effects of mycotoxin for ruminants. But the only one way to convince people is to give then examples. It was the only one objective of my comment. However, most of the time it’s very difficult the have a very clear diagnose of mycotoxins (ergot alkaloids are almost an exception). I’m not agreeing with you about the fact that ruminants are not sensitive to zearalenon (Weaver and al., 1986b, as an example). It has been proved by several studies, even at very low dosage (60 ppb). For the DON, Whitlow and al. (1994) proved for example an average milk production correlated with the contamination of DON (between 500 and 900 ppb). As you, I will not say that ruminants are strongly sensitive to mycotoxins but in some conditions, mycotoxins will definitely act negatively on the animals. Cheers
From personal experience, and from the results from survey work I have done in SW Victoria nearly all pasture is contaminated with ZEA and DON at levels ranging from 500ppb up to 70ppm, and also the fact that in our National residue Survey all animals tested from this area had traces of ZEA and or the metabolites and we do not have a major problem with fertility there. Also the research will indicate that levels of 1ppm will cause abortions. I have also experienced in feedlots, levels of 26ppm has caused diabetes and mortalities.
I think the question of tolerance really depends on production, stress, days in milk and a number of other stressors . It is also important to remember that mycotoxins are not the only contamination, and there are many plant toxins and oestrogen's which can cause similar issues.
From all my experiences, ergovaline is probably the biggest issue in terms of mycotoxins for much cattle and dairy production in the world.
Cheers
