Biomarkers – a New Method to Analyse Mycotoxin Exposure

Cleary Martin, Agri FARMACY SA

Mycotoxins are dangerous toxins produced by naturally occurring fungi and mould that are present in varying degrees in agricultural products. The continued increase in global populations, coupled with an increase in animal protein consumption due to higher living standards has resulted in more pressure on the livestock industry. Food safety issues, which include amongst others the effect of mycotoxins on animals, has now become increasingly important.

Mycotoxin contamination often occurs while feed products are being prepared and stored, as well as when mould starts to grow in the fields due to ideal moisture and temperature conditions. In South Africa, zearalenone, T-2 toxin, vomitoxin, aflatoxins, ochratoxins, fumonisins, and t-2 toxins are the most significant mycotoxins found in feeds and food. Toxic effects on animals are typically caused by a combination of two or more different mycotoxins rather than by a single mycotoxin.

Aflatoxins

Aflatoxin contamination of feed and feed products are reported yearly on a global scale. Aflatoxin- related problems in animals include everything from chronic illness to unexpected death. Aflatoxins are also known to harm the livers of animals, leading to conditions such as liver degeneration, necrosis, and altered liver function. Aflatoxins poisoning may not necessarily have overt symptoms, although one common indicator in young animals, is slow growth rate.  

Ochratoxins 

Like aflatoxins, ochratoxins are extremely dangerous since they affect optimal kidney function of all livestock and, in very high amounts, may also cause hepatotoxicity. According to research, ochratoxins can result in a variety of embryonic abnormalities as well as a lowered birth weight. 

Zearalenone

Zearalenone and ergot alkaloids are considered important as they are present in most raw materials used for animal consumption. Zearalenone causes an oestrogenic response in animals by interacting with estrogen receptors. A few of its estrogenic adverse effects include decreased fertility, a rise in embryo foetal resorptions, smaller litters, altered progesterone levels, and birth abnormalities in pigs and small ruminants.  

Zearalenone is known to induce vaginitis, increased vaginal discharge, mammary gland enlargement, poor reproductive function, reduced feed intake, decreased milk output, and abortions in dairy calves. 

Pigs are the most sensitive of farm animals to zearalenone; some consequences include enlarged vulva and mammary glands, longer estrus intervals, vulvovaginitis, vaginal and/or rectal prolapse, ovarian atrophy, disturbed conceptions, abortions, and infertility in pigs. Zearalenone can have an impact on boars by inducing feminisation, resulting in testicular atrophy, swollen prepuces, and expression of the mammary glands. 

Fumonisins

Fumonisin-contaminated feed increase animal death rates by causing pulmonary oedema, liver and pancreatic damage, weight loss, and compromised immunological function. 

Trichothecenes (Don, T-2 toxin, and DAS)

Mycotoxins called trichothecenes can be found in cereals, commercial feed, and mixed feed. Trichothecenes reduce feed intake in animals, which results in weight loss, melaena, diarrhea, sores in the mouth, abortions, and death. The animal’s oral lesions cause feed refusal and in extreme circumstances vomiting.

Economic Importance

Mycotoxins not only affect animal health, but it also has significant economic repercussions. In addition to the negative consequences mycotoxins have on animal production, crops that are severely tainted with mycotoxins must be eradicated, which represents a huge loss to crop farmers. Mycotoxins have a detrimental effect on the yield and nutritional value of forage and grain. The explanation for this is that mould consumes the nutrients in the feed to survive, causing the feed to have a reduced energy content and necessitating farmers to spend more money on supplemental feed to ensure that animals grow appropriately.

Control of Mycotoxins

Due to the catastrophic effects mycotoxins have on livestock, methods to clean and detoxify mycotoxin-contaminated food and feed have been developed. Physical techniques, chemical techniques, biological techniques, and nutritional techniques are all included in these efforts. Adding absorbents to animal feed is the method most usually used to protect livestock from mycotoxins.

A popular physical technique for treating feed tainted with mycotoxins, is absorption. This technique makes use of absorption binders that combine with the mycotoxins to generate a complex molecule that cannot be absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. Different mycotoxin absorption binders are offered to farmers by Agri FARMACY SA to aid in the detoxification of feed and raw feed components. In addition to supplying mycotoxin binders, Agri FARMACY Professional Services also provides veterinary and nutritionist services for farmers. We help with in-feed sampling and, biosecurity feed mill audits are also done. The process of sampling feed is tedious and needs to be done correctly so as to avoid contamination, that may lead to misleading results. Agri FARMACY Professional Services will offer correct feed sampling techniques and, filling in the correct documentation required by the analysing laboratories. We will courier the sample to the laboratory to make this process as easy as possible for the producer. Once the laboratory results are done, the Professional Service team will take on the responsibility to interpret the results and explain to you what it means, and what the possible solutions include. Our veterinarian and nutritionist teams can also guide you to use the correct mycotoxin binder ensuring the best possible outcome for your farm. 

Detection of Mycotoxins

The common method to detect mycotoxin contamination is through feed analysis⁶. The problem with this traditional method is that mycotoxin organisms create hotspots in the feed. This causes some areas in the feed to have a higher concentration of mycotoxins than other areas, making sampling of feeds nonconstant, leading to an irregular sample representative. Another negative aspect of feed analysis is no information is available of individual exposure, which causes variations in affected animals due to differences in feed consumption/absorption, feed distribution and important metabolic processes. Another issue with feed analysis is that it only focusses on the feed contamination and not on alternative routes for poisoning such as dermal and respiratory exposure. Masked mycotoxins pose another threat to animal health, as they cannot be detected with conventional feed analysis tests. Masked mycotoxins are by-products of mycotoxins, their molecule structure changed to be part of the plant which gave it the name “masked” mycotoxins. When masked mycotoxins are ingested, they can convert back to harmful agents and cause symptoms related to mycotoxin exposure. In other words, masked mycotoxins cause clinical signs, but the feed results represent low levels of mycotoxin contamination. All of the statements above cause a mismatch between the mycotoxin contamination level of animal feed and animal exposure, which can be resolved with the analysis of animal biological matrices. Biological matrices like urine, blood and/or faeces are used as biomarkers to analyse mycotoxin exposure in the metabolic system of the animal. Fortunately, such analysis exists with Innovad®, a global supplier of animal health and nutritional solutions.

For the first time it is possible to achieve what was theorised as the best method to correctly assess the true exposure of animals to mycotoxins, by detecting them and their metabolites in bodily fluids, in this case animals’ blood. This diagnostic tool is called the Myco-Marker®. Innovad® has validated and patented a method to currently determine 36 different mycotoxin biomarkers in blood using so-called FDA cards. The cards offer a simple means to easily collect blood spots and dispatch them for analysis to their lab without restrictions. The blood analysis, applied with the Myco-Marker® service demonstrates that feed analysis alone does not provide a sufficient overview of the mycotoxin risk. The added value of combining feed and blood analysis to uncover mycotoxin risk has revealed that most cases (80%) of mycotoxin exposure would have been missed if only the feed was analysed.

Agri FARMACY Professional Services is proud to partner with ENVARTO South Africa, agents for the Innovad® product range, to offer you a full and representative mycotoxin analysis on your farm – this includes;

• Veterinary consultation
• Nutritional consultation
• Feed testing
• Blood testing
• Feed mill audits
• Biosecurity feed mill audits

Envarto® South Africa (https://envarto.co.za/) are the import and distribution agents for the Innovad® (https://innovad-global.com/) product range. Agri FARMACY Professional Services are proudly associated with Envarto® and Innovad®.

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