Mycotoxins are chemical products secreted by fungi as a result of their normal metabolic processes. Moulds themselves can cause pathogenic situations (mycoses) but they can be easily controlled, either by drying or processing of the material on which it is growing or by adding mould inhibitors.
Mycotoxins are altogether more insidious. Since they are invisible their presence is not easily detected. However, it is safe to assume that where fungi have become well established, mycotoxins will almost certainly have been produced and have contaminated the host material. Mycotoxicoses (disease situations caused by the mycotoxins) can be extremely dangerous and indeed, often misdiagnosed.
General symptoms of Mycotoxicosis:
- Poor appetite, feed rejection
- Poor grown rates
- Reduction in reproductive performance
- Reduction in milk production
- Immunosuppression
- Reduced response to antibiotics for other diseases
- Poor response to vaccines
- Increased mortality
- Softer faeces, diarrhoea
- Respiratory problems
- Oral lesions
- Liver dysfunction
- Kidney dysfunction
- Necrosis of alimentary tract
Control or eradication of toxins is not as easy task, but a product that can help is Ultrabond
Reference / Further Reading
Ultrabond - The hidden risk in home grown forage from Mycotoxins...