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Mycotoxins remain one of the most persistent and complex challenges facing global livestock and feed production. Produced by naturally occurring molds, these toxic compounds can contaminate crops before harvest, during storage or throughout feed manufacturing, often without obvious visual signs.
Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by certain types of fungi, primarily molds, that can contaminate food and feed crops. These toxins are naturally occurring and can pose significant health risks to humans and animals if consumed in sufficient quantities.
Fungal contamination of crops and production of toxic secondary metabolites (mycotoxins) are the inevitable issues throughout the world, mainly in the developing countries. These toxins associated with adverse effects on animals, humans and crops, result in health issues and economic losses.
Aflatoxins (AF) are a group of mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus molds. Aflatoxins can be produced both in the field while the crop is under growth as well as during harvesting, storage and transport of raw materials and animal feeds.
The aim of livestock diets is fulfill the nutrient needs of an animal, while maintaining its good health.
Unseasonal rains, humid weather with high temperatures, drought, insect damage to crops, and insufficiently managed storage conditions can cause huge amounts of feed raw materials to rot away. This can lead to omnipresent parasitic or saprophytic growth of molds on feed raw materials with increasing mycotoxin contamination thus affecting feed and food security.
The current focus of poultry feed industry is to minimize the variation in feed quality, maximize feed efficiency and reduce feed cost. Feed quality mainly depends on the quality of raw materials and major factors contributing to variation in quality of raw materials include crop varieties, climatic conditions, fertilization practices, soil fertility, processing techniques, storage conditions and presence of anti-nutritional substances.
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