April 21, 2014
BIOMIN awarded top Houska prize for fumonisin research
BIOMIN has been awarded the top Houska prize (Houskapreis)--Austria's largest private award for applied sciences research--in acknowledgement for pioneering research in mycotoxins, in particular the fumonisin-degrading enzyme FUMzyme®.
At the recently-concluded Victam Asia, FUMzyme® was named the winner of the FIAAP Animal Nutrition Award 2014. Next, the Houska Prize, which honours Austria's best in research projects, is but the latest feather in the cap for BIOMIN and FUMzyme®, sealing the lead reputation of BIOMIN for mycotoxins risk management research.
For the first place award, the Houska Prize committee at the Vienna-based B&C Foundation identified moulds as a recurring problem in agriculture and growing threat to food safety. In addition to the billions in losses due to damage, fumonisins induce severe diseases in animals that could lead ultimately to death.
The latest BIOMIN Mycotoxin Survey 2013 found over 21% of all feed ingredient samples containing over 1,000 ppb of fumonisins, a level of fumonisin contamination that poses a medium-to-high health risk for pigs and poultry.
The Foundation awarded the first prize to "the BOKU Vienna project"--in reference to the joint BIOMIN-BOKU mycotoxins research--as the project "stood out with a highly topical scientific concept" while offering "a prime example of successful cooperation between (academic) research and corporate partnership".
