06 September 2021 – Mycotoxin mitigation strategies are nothing new to animal nutrition. But as the warming of our climate system continues – which is driving an increase in the presence of mycotoxigenic fungi – these strategies have become increasingly vital to maintaining animal health and productivity.
For the poultry industry this rise in mycotoxin prevalence is particularly significant as the signs of mycotoxicosis in the field are sometimes more subclinical than for other species, like ruminants or farmed fish. Add to this that the industry, due to its smaller carbon footprint when compared to other animal proteins, is expected to play a large role in sustainably meeting the world’s growing demand for meat, being able to adequately respond to this growing mycotoxin risk has become a key objective.
Impextraco has committed itself to helping the industry successfully navigate this challenge and help poultry producers maintain production efficiency. The company’s Global Technical Director, Katrien Deschepper and its Product Manager, Arno Duchateau recently sat down with Feedinfo to discuss improving mitigation strategies and why its Elitox® mycotoxin solution is still an effective tool to help address mycotoxicosis 19 years after it was first launched.
[Feedinfo] What does the current mycotoxin situation look like compared to a few years ago? And how do you expect it to change in the near future?
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[Katrien Deschepper] If humanity will not reduce greenhouse emission or adopt more carbon neutral production methods, heavy rainfall and increasing temperature changes will continue to occur more frequently. When moulds experience these changing environmental conditions, they will produce more mycotoxins. Studies have shown that the risk of aflatoxin contamination in European corn doubles if the average temperature increases by 2°C. So, climate change and mycotoxin occurrence go hand-in-hand. |
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At the same time, the demand for meat will further increase in the coming decades thanks to population growth, urbanisation and development. This means that raw materials will become scarce and, due to the increased presence of mycotoxins, of inferior quality. We have no choice but to use technological and feed additive solutions to convert these materials as efficiently as possible into high quality animal protein.
A good example is the increased use of non-conventional by-products in animal nutrition, such as dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS). This is an encouraging trend because it is available in large amounts and can be easily valorised into a feed ingredient that replaces more expensive proteins. But, on the other hand, it is known to be associated with an increased mycotoxin risk.
Therefore, the need for proper mycotoxin management will grow with climate change and the increased demand for high quality animal protein.
[Feedinfo] Mycotoxicosis is more challenging to address in poultry due to it presenting more subclinically in the species. What has this, combined with the increase in mycotoxin occurrence, meant for the poultry industry?
[Katrien Deschepper] It is well known that poultry are very sensitive to mycotoxins, although there are not always visible clinical signs identified under field conditions. However, the subclinical negative effects of mycotoxins on organ functionality, intestinal health and the immunity of the bird may cause an important economic loss for poultry producers due to its effects on technical performance.
To mitigate the impact of mycotoxins, regulations have been established in many parts of the world with maximum permitted levels, mainly for the six primary mycotoxins that are frequently found in feed raw materials.
However, other frequently occurring mycotoxins have not been regulated. Feed can also be contaminated with multiple mycotoxins, and several studies have suggested that more pronounced adverse health effects were measured in poultry exposed to co-occurring mycotoxins.
In a recent long-term evaluation, it was shown that natural contamination with levels below the EU recommendations for mycotoxins had a significant negative impact of 2.5 points in feed conversion. As it is well known that even small changes in feed efficiency will have a significant impact on profits, an effective intervention strategy to reduce levels of contaminants in feed and improve birds’ feed efficiency would help to reduce production costs and environmental emissions.
[Feedinfo] Talking about environmental emissions, what does a bigger mycotoxin presence/challenge mean for the industry’s carbon footprint and sustainability strategies?
[Katrien Deschepper] No question chickens have the lowest footprint of any animal protein and the impact on greenhouse gas emissions is as low as for rice production. Chickens are more efficient in converting feed into high value meat protein, and that reduces the amount of land, fertilizer and energy involved, resulting in a light carbon footprint.
The majority of the increased demand for meat in the future will be supplied by the poultry industry because poultry meat is the most affordable animal protein source. This increase in poultry production will mainly take place in Asia Pacific and Latin America.
Along with this growth in demand and the accompanying greater pressure on sustainable use of raw materials, productivity needs will also have to be further improved despite the increased challenges caused by, for example, mycotoxins. Effective breeding is one of the success factors to further reduce the environmental impact of poultry meat production. But further genetic improvement in feed efficiency should be examined jointly with appropriate feeding strategies in broilers. When animal health is compromised due to disease or mycotoxicosis, energy will be spent on fighting the disease instead of growth. This will obviously decrease their efficiency and grow the carbon investment needed to produce the same amount of animal protein.
[Feedinfo] In your opinion, are the poultry industry’s mycotoxin management approaches sufficient to help it take on this growing challenge? If not, what do you see as the main problems and solutions?
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[Arno Duchateau] Currently, mycotoxin management in poultry industry is primarily based on prevention by monitoring and strictly regulating maximum levels in feed batches. Moreover, contaminated ingredients will be fed to non-breeding or adult animals if high quality materials are scarce. It is known that feed sampling is often unreliable and adult animals can also suffer from mycotoxins, i.e., their reproductive performance will decrease. |
Therefore, going forward, people have to acknowledge the issues relating to mycotoxins and understand the importance of protecting the birds with a mycotoxin eliminator. Even though the effects might be invisible to the farmer, additional stress on the animals should be avoided at any cost. This means supporting agents in the mycotoxin eliminator are very important, as any toxin that dodged binding or degradation will cause harm to the animals. Also, all stressors will add up to losses in performance and revenue for the farmer.
[Feedinfo] Your mycotoxin solution, Elitox®, has been in the market for 19 years. Why do you think it is still an effective mycotoxin management tool for the poultry industry considering the current challenges?
[Arno Duchateau] Impextraco was one of the first companies to recognise the negative impact of mycotoxins on animal health and performance and developed an effective solution with Elitox®. Its effectiveness has been proven all over the world. This has led to unique in-house expertise with a science-based platform for new product development. Our global presence and scientific expertise allow Impextraco to evaluate the efficacy of Elitox® against the current threats in mycotoxin management.
Supported by this knowledge, it is safe to say that Impextraco has a very effective strategy to solve mycotoxicosis. Binding mycotoxins has to be accompanied with animal support to counteract any damage that mycotoxins could induce. Next to binding mycotoxins, Elitox® has two modes of action to support the animal during mycotoxicosis. The first one is to strengthen the gut barrier and the second one is to stimulate a proper immune response. Mycotoxins need to pass the epithelial barrier to cause harm to vital organs and an unbalanced immune response is a risk for diseases and gut inflammation. When this is avoided, Elitox® ensures an optimal performance during any mycotoxin challenge.
[Feedinfo] In partnership with the University of Parana in Brazil you recently investigated Elitox®’s efficacy in broilers contaminated with zearalenone, T2-toxin, aflatoxins, and fumonisin. What did the results show?
[Arno Duchateau] Through the years we have acquired close partnerships with institutes and universities around the world to study the in vivo efficacy of Elitox®. With the help of technological development of biomarkers, we could really understand the effects of mycotoxins on the gut barrier and immune system and evaluate its efficacy and mode of action. For example, in partnership with the University of Leuven, we studied the effect of zearalenone in broiler breeders, which revealed a reduction in fertility in the contaminated birds. It was shown that Elitox® could counteract the lower laying rate and number of fertile eggs of these animals.
Another scientific study looked at the incidence of liver problems induced by aflatoxins and, with the help of liver biomarkers in the blood, the efficacy of Elitox® could be examined. Fumonisins also have a typical blood biomarker, which is the sphinganine/ sphingosine (Sa/So) ratio. This ratio will increase in a contaminated animal due to fumonisins compromising the mechanism of cell membrane synthesis.
Moreover, intestinal samples revealed an inflammation response in T2-contaminated broilers by counting an increased number of goblet cells. For all these findings Elitox® was able to counteract the issue.
[Feedinfo] What does the future hold for Elitox®? After 19 years, are you planning on making any formulation changes to the product?
[Katrien Deschepper] The effectiveness of Elitox® has been proven all over the world to be an effective strategy to solve mycotoxicosis.
However, feed is the source of many challenges, and the gut is the place of contact with the outside world. Next to mycotoxins, antinutritional factors, undigested protein and microbiological load are amongst the most important feed challenges. Steering health by optimal nutrition requires a multifaceted approach by using the right raw materials, correct nutrient levels and well selected feed additives in function of the local challenges. In the last few years Impextraco has developed a toolbox with specialty feed additive solutions that is able to define the best nutritional solution for each specific situation.
[Feedinfo] As you mentioned earlier, there is growing evidence that feed sampling does not provide us with an accurate picture of the mycotoxin challenge. What, in your opinion, should the poultry industry be considering for a more correct assessment of the problem?
[Arno Duchateau] Indeed, Impextraco has been aware of this issue, and it is the main reason why we never used feed sample analysis as a marketing strategy. Instead, we have focused on offering an effective science-based solution. Most of our customers know very well how to perform good quality control at incoming goods and know how to avoid high contamination levels, but even by mapping the exact contamination level, in the end you need a proper solution that provides a high protection against any level of mycotoxins all year round.
Published in association with Impextraco