High levels of mycotoxin in grain pig feed

Grain grown in Europe knows still a very high risk of the presence of mycotoxin (a poison produced by fungi). This is evident from themycotoxin monitoring 2016' from the Austrian animal feed manufacturer Biomin. Six out of ten samples contain traces of mycotoxin that are above the risk level.

biomin has been monitoring the worldwide levels of the six most important mycotoxins in pig feed and raw grains since 2004. The company collected more than 2016 samples from 16.000 countries for the 81 study. This has shown that 50 to 70 percent of European grains contain a high-risk amount of mycotoxin. These fungi produce toxins and infect all kinds of grains, corn and soy.

Most of the contaminated grains are used in the production of pig feed. Biomin indicates that the presence of mycotoxin is an underestimated problem. The poison has a lot of negative effects on pigs. A pig that has to deal with mycotoxins is more easily caught by infections. There is also often a reduction in the immune system, digestion or a reduced feed intake.

According to Biomin's research, many traces of deoxynivalenol and zearalenone can be found in European animal feed. Deoxynivalenol occurs in 77 percent of the samples taken. The second fungus appears to occur in more than 71 percent of the samples.

Traces of fumonisin were found in 67 percent of European maize samples. This does not pose a high risk to the pigs. However, as mentioned earlier, the grain samples do contain high-risk amounts of mycotoxin. Deoxynivalenol is especially common, namely in 71 percent of the samples.

Compared to the rest of the world, Europe is not doing badly at all. In almost all parts of the world, people have to deal with a high to very high risk level. Asia and Central America in particular show significant outliers. In Central America and Asia, respectively, 94 and 93 percent of the maize samples were found to be contaminated with the fungus fumonisin. Only the Middle East and Oceania have a medium risk.  

Worldwide, deoxynivalenol is the most commonly found. This fungus was found in 77 percent of the maize samples at an average concentration of 1595 ppb. All values ​​above 1000 ppb pose a high risk for pigs.

In second place is fumonisin. This fungus was found in more than 73 percent of global maize samples. This was an average concentration of 2017 ppb. That is again far above the 'high risk threshold' of 1500 ppb.

The third toxin that was notably frequently encountered is zearalenone. Of these, an average value of 334 ppb was found in over 50 percent of global maize samples. According to Biomin, this also poses a high risk for pigs.

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