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Interpretive Summary: Mycotoxin deactivator improves performance, antioxidant status, and reduces oxidative stress in nursery pigs fed diets containing mycotoxins

By Anne Zinn

A paper recently published in the Journal of Animal Science evaluated the impact of the supplementation of a mycotoxin deactivator in diets containing added mycotoxins for nursery piglets on their performance and antioxidant status. Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of fungi that have toxic properties and, when ingested, can negatively impact animal performance, hematological and serum biochemical levels, and negatively affect the immune system. The inclusion of mycotoxin binders or deactivators in feed has been used to decrease the intestinal absorption of mycotoxins present in diets, but the aspects of purity, particle size, origin and porosity of the binders, as well as the physical properties of the mycotoxin should be considered moving forward. The present study aimed to evaluate the impact of the supplementation of a mycotoxin deactivator composed by adsorbent clay minerals, inactivated fermentation extracts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and a blend of antioxidants, organic acids, and botanicals in diets containing added mycotoxins for nursery pigs on their performance and antioxidant status.

Overall, results demonstrated that the use of a mycotoxin deactivator can mitigate the negative impacts on performance and oxidative stress when animals are subjected to diets contaminated by different levels of mycotoxins. The addition of a deactivator at two different levels of inclusion resulted in varying benefits to the piglets, and the addition of the deactivator at a low level did provide the ability to improve the performance of the piglets, but when at a high level of contamination, even increasing the deactivator inclusion by 5-fold was not enough to reduce the impacts of mycotoxins on feed intake, growth, and antioxidants status. It is important to note that results may vary under different mycotoxin concentrations, types, and mixtures; therefore, additional research is warranted.

The full paper and results can be found on the Journal of Animal Science webpage.