Alleviating toxin related stress and biomonitoring its impact

Farming animals are every day confronted with a number of challenges:

This accumulation of several stress factors often leads to oxidative stress at the cellular level which results in:

The impact of these stress factors is amplified by the presence of toxins even at low doses, in particularly when in combination.

With regards to mycotoxins, the Industry has put a lot of effort on field surveys. However, we are missing perhaps the ‘bigger picture’ by ignoring all the other stress factors which impact the performance of the animal. The Industry is in need of more holistic approaches that can tackle more than one challenge in real life conditions.

Innovad, after years of research, has developed a technology, that offers a comprehensive solution.

But there is a lot more to it. Escent^® S is a complex formula which comprises of anti-oxidants (natural and synthetic). This means it helps to prevent and lower the levels of oxidative stress at the cellular level. On top of this, Escent^® S contains plant extracts and plant constituents that support and protect the liver function. Additionally, the Escent® S technology incorporates immune stimulating components like yeast extracts, yeast cell walls and fermentation extracts which put in action the natural defense mechanisms. And of course, Escent^® S has excellent adsorbing and binding capacity to toxic molecules.

The Escent^® S platform is actually a holistic approach, not just a product. The platform is complemented by proprietary Risk Assessment. Access to state of the art LC-MS/MS analysis means we can look at a number of mycotoxins, not just the usual suspects, with high sensitivity. More importantly, this is accompanied by a report with recommendations for application rates.

As part of her PhD research at the University of Ghent in Belgium, Marianne Lauwers evaluated the efficacy of Escent^® S as a detoxifier platform in different biological matrices in pigs and chickens by using biomarkers for exposure (biomonitoring). This research was recently published in the highly ranked Journal of Toxins.

In this study, Escent^® S was tested in vivo using co-contamination (i.e. blends of mycotoxins), following several biological matrices (blood, urine, feaces and/or excreta), in several species (poultry & swine), following both phase I and phase II metabolites.

The results showed a systemic reduction of mycotoxins in blood, urine and faeces (or bird excreta):

This is not an easy task taking into account that a) the animals were contaminated with a blend of three mycotoxins (DON, OTA and AFB1) and b) at high doses (25x higher than the EFSA guidelines for OTA and 100x higher for AFB1.

What this really means is that the Escent^® S Technology can help to reduce animal disease knowing the impact of toxic compounds in several diseases like Necrotic Enteritis in chickens.

Well, the Escent^® S Technology is available not only as feed additive but also as a drinking water application. That means that Escent® L can be applied as a short intervention when it is most needed against abiotic and biotic stress to support the animal’s own immune system. And we have seen a great response in the field given very diverse practices, climatic conditions, geographic territories and animal species.

The biomonitoring research is just the beginning of an exciting journey. Innovad is in the middle of a large-scale field trial in pregnant sows in which we are testing the efficacy of our Escent^® S Technology to systemically lower the levels of key toxic contaminants by monitoring the levels of mycotoxins both in feed and in biological fluids. But more importantly, we are aiming to monitor several key biomarkers of stress and correlate those findings with the animal health status.