Successfully combating
MYCOTOXINS IN COWS AND SOWS with BIO Tox Activ8 from Biochem
By Oliver Caiger-Smith, Technical Sales Manager at Biochem
Detected levels of mycotoxins have gradually increased as a result of more frequent use of better analytical methods. But fluctuating climatic conditions and greater sensitivity of certain high yield cereals have also contributed to higher mycotoxin levels. Similarly, the sensitivity of livestock to mycotoxins has increased with modern genetics. The remarkable progress in breeding over the past 20 years has led to a significantly higher susceptibility to both pathogens and toxic substances, such as mycotoxins. At the same time, due to increasing resistance to antibiotic agents, there has been a demand to reduce the general use of antibiotics. Consequently, in the interests of improving animal health, the focus is shifting away from treatment to implementing preventative measures and optimising external conditions. Feed and feed safety play a key role in establishing and maintaining animal health, therefore, strategies within feed to control the damage that mycotoxins can have on epithelial integrity, metabolic processes, production and growth are of the utmost importance for nutritionists feeding dairy cows, laying hens, broiler breeders, sows and piglets. The impact of elevated mycotoxin exposure entails several
problems, some of which are very difficult to isolate. Brief exposure to individual toxins is relatively rare and not nearly as harmful as lower-level mixed contaminations, which are often detected under field conditions where animals are subject to the general stresses and strains of production, environmental stress and other pressures associated with high production. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that some mycotoxins have a synergistic effect. The clinical symptoms generally appear as secondary pathologies. Mycotoxins have a variety of negative effects, some of which destroy the body’s cells. Symptoms often manifest themselves in the functional failure of affected structures. For example, the intestinal epithelium is one of the first tissue structures to come into contact with mycotoxins after they are orally ingested. Their cytotoxic effects lead to malfunctions and as a result, the gut permeability for adverse substances increases. This in turn enables more endotoxins to penetrate the gut barrier and cause clinical symptoms like ear necrosis or inflammation of the mammary glands affecting colostrum and milk production.
PAGE 32 MARCH/APRIL 2023 FEED COMPOUNDER The next step is to significantly reduce the bioavailability of
mycotoxins with the help of feed additives, or so-called toxin binders. The aim is to bind the various mycotoxins, preferably irreversibly, so that they can be excreted by the faeces together with the toxin binder. This becomes more difficult due to the fact that the different mycotoxins vary considerably in their physical and chemical properties. Consequently, a toxin binder must be capable of adapting to these different molecular characteristics. Certain mycotoxins, such as the storage toxins of the aflatoxin family, are relatively easy to bind due to their more polar nature. On the other hand, the fusarium toxins produced in the field are much more difficult to capture due to their apolar charge distribution. The surface of a potent toxin binder must meet these criteria to the greatest extent possible – and not only under the low pH level conditions in the stomach that are more favourable for the binding process. This bond should also stay stable in the neutral area at the end of the small intestine. The pH level ultimately has a decisive influence on the surface structure of the toxin binder. This surface structure can be physically or chemically processed or activated. Likewise, the specific surface structure, i.e. the relative binding surface, can be increased to a certain degree by appropriate measures. The successful development of a mycotoxin binder must therefore include four critical elements:
1. A careful selection of raw materials 2. Raw materials should be combined in the best possible proportion to each other 3. Raw materials that have undergone chemical or physical activation processes optimise their surface 4. The targeted resulting combination of raw materials is a high degree of irreversible binding of mycotoxins at all pH levels observed in the digestive tract.
Exhaustive studies and analyses are therefore necessary to
develop such an additive and produce the desired result. BIO Tox Activ8 is a carefully selected mycotoxin binder, the result of exhaustive testing following the above four principles. It contains activated mineral
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