Mycotoxins: First blood survey performed in LATAM countries

Innovad together with Adisens (Innovad official distributor in Peru) was present at the AVEM conference 2021. This conference is the most important poultry conference in Peru and it attracts people from other LATAM countries. Innovad and Adisens hosted a session to explain the results from the first blood survey performed in LATAM countries using the Myco-Marker® service,  the title of the session was “Myco-Marker: knowing the real exposure to mycotoxins through blood tests”. There were more than 200 attendants to this session and it shows the interest of people to discover the uniqueness of the mycotoxin control platform offered by Innovad. These were the most important points discussed during the session:

Animals are continuously exposed to multi-mycotoxins: different scientific feed surveys confirmed that feed contains normally various mycotoxins at the same time. The chronic exposure to some mycotoxins cause important economical losses (performance reduction & health problems).

Feed analysis can NOT know the real exposure: it is well known that feed analysis can not capture the real mycotoxin exposure because of some limitations. Advances in the analytical techniques allowed to analyse mycotoxin biomarkers in biological fluids, and scientific community pointed out that it is the correct way to measure the real mycotoxin exposure.

Innovad patented a method to quantify mycotoxin biomarkers in blood: Innovad performed a 4 years research project to validate methods to determine mycotoxin biomarkers in biological biomarkers. As a result, a method to easily quantify mycotoxins in blood using FTA cards (60 uL per animal) is offered to the clients. The blood analysis is offered in combination with feed analysis under a service called Myco-Marker®. > 1,000 animals analysed around the world: after 1 year of Myco-marker® application, results demonstrated that animals are continuously co-exposed to mycotoxins. Mycotoxins were detected in all the farms and > 98% of the farms were exposed to 2 or more mycotoxins.

Worst situation in LATAM: > 100 animals from LATAM countries have been analysed and the number of mycotoxins detected in LATAM farms is higher compared to other world regions. Thus, > 80% of the animals from LATAM were exposed to 4 or more mycotoxins.

Large presence of emerging mycotoxins: surprisingly emerging mycotoxins were highly common in blood from poultry animals. Tenuazonic acid was the most frequent mycotoxin detected in blood (> 65% of animals) and enniatin B1 was the third most common mycotoxin detected in blood. It shows the importance of monitoring emerging mycotoxins to capture the real mycotoxin risk.

Correlation between real mycotoxin exposure and clinical symptoms: combination of feed and blood analysis permitted to detect the real mycotoxin exposure. Consequently, it has been possible to observe for the first time the real mycotoxin impact as health problems correlated to mycotoxin exposure have been identified.

Detoxifier technologies must be tested in vivo: detoxifier technologies are commonly tested in vitro. However, in vitro test does not mimic enough the real conditions, for this reason, even European Comission has established that detoxifier technologies must be tested in vivo to obtain reliable data. Innovad performed first in vivo test to prove that detoxifier technology, called Escent®, reduces the systemic exposure to mycotoxins. The results, published in highly impact scientific journals, demonstrated that Escent® could significantly reduce the systemic exposure to mycotoxins, in other words, Escent caused that mycotoxin levels in biological fluids were lower than without Escent®. Moreover, Escent® technology has multiple modes of action that support animals to combat stress factors improving animal performance and health status.