Canada - Livestock Producers Cautioned to be Aware of Elevated Fusarium Risk in Feed Grains

The University of Alberta warns, with this summer's combination of abundant rain and warm temperatures, livestock producers will need to be on alert for potentially elevated levels of fusarium infection in feed grains. Fusarium head blight is a fungal infection that primarily affects cereal crops. Fusarium graminearum, the strain of particular concern, is present throughout Manitoba and into Eastern Saskatchewan with the Red River Valley tending to face the highest risk. University of Alberta Feed Industry Chair Dr. Ruurd Zijlstra says the main concern among livestock producers is vomitoxin. "Vomitoxin can be very toxic especially to pigs but also to other livestock species. Pigs generally we consider to be most sensitive so when we look at inclusion levels of vomitoxin that can be tolerated CFI might be looking at levels of one PPM but certainly some research indicates that pigs might be able to tolerate two parts per million of vomitoxin. Obviously that is a very low level relative to what cattle might be tolerating at five or ten parts per million. What we're most worried about obviously is our economic and livestock implications that such compounds have. For this particular compound, we could expect very drastic reductions in productivity starting with reductions in feed intake and very drastic reductions in performance, growth performance." Dr. Zijlstra points out there's no quick method for a evaluating a given load of grain so the best defense is to get some sort of quality guarantee from the supplier. He suggests, since we're using a very high amount of feed grains in our feed formulations, the risk management should be implemented prior to receiving those feed grains.