This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
The following work is a summary and interpretation of the scientific article published in the journal TOXINS NUMBER 8, on October 15, 2019.
Mycotoxins are toxic and complicated secondary active biological metabolites produced by filamentous fungal species, mainly Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium [1]. When animals consume feeds contaminated with mycotoxins, they suffer from a series of toxic effects, such as decreased feed intake, reduced body weight gain, diarrhea, vomiting, as well as liver and kidney pulmonary edema [2]. Many different strategies, such as thermal inactivation, irradiation, physical dilution, and anti-mycotoxin products (adsorbents or elimination reagents), are used in feed mills and farms to reduce mycotoxin concentration of feedstuffs and feeds.
The addition of anti-mycotoxin products in feed is currently an effective strategy for detoxifying animal feeds. There are two major types of anti-mycotoxin feed additives, i.e., adsorbents and elimination reagents. Mycotoxin adsorbents work by preventing the absorption of mycotoxins by the gastrointestinal tract of the animal by adsorbing the toxins to their surfaces. Adsorbents are either inorganic (e.g., bentonites and hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate) or organic products (yeast cell membrane) [4,5]. Enzyme reagents (EDRs) aim to alter the toxic chemical structure of the mycotoxins and further reduce their toxicity. They generally take the forms of the whole bacterium, yeast cultures or specifically extracted components, such as enzymes.