Analysts show 2015 cereal harvest contaminated with multiple mycotoxins
The 2015 wheat, barley and corn crops being exported by the major cereal producing regions of the world show evidence of multiple mycotoxin contamination, putting the health and performance of global farmed livestock at risk.
That’s according to animal health and nutrition specialist Alltech, who has analysed 2015 harvest wheat, barley and corn samples from the top five exporting countries in each cereal category.
“For example, analyses show that the wheat being exported by the top five exporters – the EU, Russia, US, Canada and Australia – is contaminated by an average of 2.2 mycotoxins with B tricothecenes (49% of samples), fumonisins (46%) and ochratoxins (21%) being the most significant.
“However, more than 20% of the 192 samples tested contained more than four mycotoxins,” said Alltech global mycotoxin marketing manager Jonathan Younger.
The multiple contamination picture is very similar for 2015 barley with an average of 2.4 mycotoxins per sample. The top five barley exporters are the EU, Australia, Ukraine, Russia and Argentina.
However, Alltech also analysed 342 corn samples coming out of the top exporters (the US, Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine and Russia), finding even more serious mycotoxin contamination.
“The corn samples tested contained an average of 3.5 mycotoxins, but nearly half (47.95%) of them showed up positive for more than 4.
“Again, fumonisins (70% of samples), B tricothecenes (53%) and ochratoxins (21%) were amongst the most prevalent mycotoxins, but a significant number of samples (56%) also contained fusaric acid,” Younger said.
Pig production significance
Mr Younger said that the company was particularly concerned about the significance of these results for pig production units feeding imported cereals.
“Unfortunately, there is no ‘safe’ feed mycotoxin level for pigs.
“This monogastric species is very susceptible to mycotoxins and for those feeding contaminated wheat and corn, in particular, the risk of compromised performance in both breeding stock and nursery pigs is high.
“The average contamination level even presents a medium risk to more mycotoxin tolerant growing and finishing pigs,” he said.
Alltech believes that climate change and feed storage practices are starting to influence the range of moulds occurring in cereals worldwide.
And with traditional tilling and crop rotation practices diminishing too, mould contamination is persisting year-on-year, making the multiple mycotoxin threat very real.
