The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has adopted a positive scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of BIOMIN^® BBSH 797, making the company the first in the world to receive a positive EFSA opinion on mycotoxin biotransformation.

Part of the Mycofix^® product line, this microorganism is capable of biotransforming trichothecenes into harmless metabolites. The scientific opinion by EFSA concluded that BIOMIN^® BBSH 797 is not only safe for animals, humans and the environment, but also demonstrably efficacious in target species.

Following a request from the European Commission, the FEEDAP Panel acknowledged the product's efficacy to reduce the epoxide group of trichothecenes to produce less toxic and thus, harmless metabolites. The Panel concluded that the evidence presented in ex vivo and in vivo studies confirms that this efficacy can be realised in animals when the additive is incorporated into trichothecene-contaminated diets.

Trichothecenes comprise the largest group of mycotoxins, the agriculturally most important thereof belonging to type A- (e.g. T-2 toxin, diacetoxyscirpenol) or type B- trichothecenes (e.g. deoxynivalenol, nivalenol). They are one of the major mycotoxins groups affecting not just Europe but worldwide. According to the latest BIOMIN mycotoxin survey report 2012 which analysed 4,023 samples worldwide, DON was found in 64 % of all samples with an average contamination of over 1,000 pbb (parts per billion) in all tested samples.

"In 2010, we were the first feed additive company to submit a dossier for an aflatoxin binder and the first to have a positive opinion by EFSA on the approval of a feed additive with mycotoxin-counteracting properties. The dossier for the trichothecene- biotransforming product BIOMIN^® BBSH 797 was submitted only a few months after EFSA officially published their guidance document in 2012." said Dian Schatzmayr, director of competence center mycotoxins within the BIOMIN research center.