Wednesday, December 15, 2021

Preventative action against mycotoxins in feed

Extreme weather is becoming a more common occurrence. Droughts and heavy rain continue to show us the impact of climate change, which in turn impacts agriculture. Rising feed prices and poorer feed hygiene are just a couple of examples of the impact to global food production. Serious losses will also come about due to higher levels of mycotoxin contamination too.

"Timely preventive action is critical to successfully overcoming the challenges. Preventive strategies optimise productivity while reducing the impact of mycotoxins on animal performance, health and welfare, making animal production much more sustainable. Anta®Ferm MT80 was specifically developed to protect livestock from the adverse effects of mycotoxins. Its impressive efficiency is due to its special composition.

"Mycotoxins: Compensate for nutrient loss; feed sustainably
"In 2021, prices for feed grain and oilseed reached an all-time high: wheat and soya prices increased by up to 50 percent, while the price of maize even increased by 100 percent. This was mainly due to worldwide droughts such as those in the USA, Argentina and China. Additionally, the higher temperatures and CO2 concentrations, as well as a change in the distribution of precipitation, promote the spread of moulds. Mycotoxins, which are usually found in warmer regions, are becoming increasingly prolific, even in the European region (EFSA, 2017). Since mycotoxins contribute to poorer nutrient content and reduced feed conversion (Tables 1 and 2), this poses enormous challenges for the entire agricultural sector.

"In order to be proactive in addressing these challenges, it is important that producers and livestock farmers compensate for the poorer digestibility of the feed. This is where professional additives come into play. In a trial with broilers (Okolelova T.M., Merzlenko O.V., 2019), Anta®Ferm MT80 demonstrably improved protein and fat digestibility in contaminated feed (Fig. 1). Despite the higher level of contamination, the feed still provides the necessary nutrients, producing a beneficial effect on animal welfare and overall performance. In turn, the better feed conversion (Fig. 2) compensates for higher feed costs, since less feed is required. This clearly improves sustainability."

For more information visit the Dr Eckel website, HERE.


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