The Impact and Control of
DEOXYNIVALENOL (DON) Contamination in Pig Feed
By Dr Derek McIlmoyle, AB Vista EMEA Technical Director
When it comes to mycotoxin contamination of pig feed, much of the attention is quite rightly focussed on fumonisin (FUM) and zearalenone (ZON). Both are acutely toxic to pigs, and are produced by the Fusarium moulds that commonly infect the cereal grains used in pig diets. However, the most prevalent mycotoxin found within pig feeds
and feed ingredients is actually deoxynivalenol (DON) (see Figure 1). And although DON is not as specifically toxic to pigs as FUM or ZON, it can still be highly damaging to pig health, fertility and growth performance.
Figure 1: Mycotoxin contamination of feed ingredient samples from across Europe, the Middle East and Russia
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10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0
environmental conditions pre and post-harvest, insect or pest damage – which can increase susceptibility to Fusarium infection – as well as grain processing, transport and storage. Mycotoxins also rarely occur in isolation, with the presence of
multiple mycotoxins potentially acting additively or even synergistically. The effects of DON can therefore be increased by the presence of other common mycotoxins like FUM, ZON or T2 Toxin and the overall mycotoxin load experienced by commercially produced pigs in modern production units can be considerable.
Species-specific risk This mycotoxin loading is also species-specific. At 200 ppb, for example, a pig consuming 5 kg of feed per day will be exposed to 10 mg of mycotoxin, which equates to around 0.07 mg/kg bodyweight. Yet for poultry consuming similarly contaminated feed (at 100 g per day), the exposure is only 0.02 mg, or just 0.01 mg/kg bodyweight. Interestingly, although European Union (EU) guidance values for
DON contamination are relatively high for individual cereals and cereal by-products at 8,000 ppb (except for maize by-products at 12,000 ppb), the figure for complete feeds is just 900 ppb (0.9 mg/kg). However, even at this level pig performance can be affected. The data in Figure 2 shows that for each 1,000 ppb (1 mg/kg) of
Figure 2: Impact of increasing DON ingestion on feed intake (Source: Schothorst Feed Research)
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(Source: Micron Biosystems)
Feed ingredient susceptibility Part of a key group of mycotoxins known as the trichothecenes, which also includes T2 Toxin, DON is produced by the same Fusarium moulds responsible for FUM and ZON. As with all mycotoxins the level of DON contamination can vary enormously, being influenced by
PAGE 32 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 FEED COMPOUNDER -60
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0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 DON (mg/kg diet)
EU guidance value (0.9 mg/kg diet)
y = 0.8 - 5.4x r2
= 0.587
% wheat samples where mycotoxins were detected
DON FUM
T2/HT2 ZON
Feed intake reduction (%)
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