February 26, 2024

 

Cargill's world mycotoxin report provides actionable insights for enhancing livestock health 

 

 

Cargill's world mycotoxin report contains more than 350,0000 mycotoxin analyses captured annually across more than 150 feed plants, on-farm samplings and storage locations, the company said.

 

This year's report includes forage samples for the first time, capturing more than 17,000 forage mycotoxin analyses globally, which are especially important for ruminant mycotoxin risk evaluation.

 

Cargill hosts the largest and most comprehensive mycotoxin contamination database in the world providing real-time information on the most problematic mycotoxins with their level of contamination and performance risk rates and species sensitivity when exposed to a given mycotoxin, according to the company.

 

"Healthy animals perform better and drive better productivity for farmers. Despite the lack of visible symptoms, mycotoxins can wreak havoc on animal health and performance under the surface, for example, by weakening the immune system and degrading nutrient absorption and vaccine response," Gilles Houdart, global micronutrition and health solutions director for Cargill's animal nutrition business, explained. "This wealth of information enables us to promptly understand regional, species-specific and ingredient-related risks in real-time."

 

In response to the challenge of mycotoxins, Cargill developed a Mycotoxin Impact Calculator (MIC), an in-house tool that helps customers identify and mitigate mycotoxins with data-backed insights to maximise performance and outcomes for animals and producers' bottom line.

 

Key findings in Cargill's world mycotoxin report focuses on global trends, specifically:

 

    - With a slightly reduced intensity compared to 2022, the percentage of positive samples remains notably high, with 70% surpassing the detection limit and 37% of the analyses exceeding Cargill's performance risk thresholds; 

 

    - The top three mycotoxins demanding attention due to their prevalence and risk levels are Deoxynivalenol (DON; Vomitoxin), Fumonisin (FUM) and Zearalenone (ZEN). In the past year, there was a notable increase (+7%) in FUM analyses surpassing performance risk thresholds, while both DON (-1%) and ZEN (-9%) experienced decreases;

 

    - Co-occurrence continues to be prevalent, with 78% of the samples tested for three or more mycotoxins indicating contamination with multiple mycotoxins.

 

"Our customers need real-time actionable data to help them make sound decisions for their business. Thanks to our data centralisation efforts and decision-making tools, Cargill helps to characterise mycotoxin risk for each situation to adopt the appropriate solution," said the author of the report, Clement Soulet, global anti-mycotoxin agent category manager for Cargill's animal nutrition business.

 

The complete 2023 World Mycotoxin Report can be found: https://mycotoxins.com/KnowledgeCenter

 

- Cargill