Mycotoxins and poultry

Mycotoxins and poultry

David Sparks Ph.D.
David Sparks Ph.D.
Dr. Max Hawkins is an Alltech Mycotoxin Management team nutritionist. He told me recently that "It is important for producers to understand the synergistic effects toxins can have when multiple are present in feed, causing an influx in animal and rumen health challenges,""Management practices to prevent exposure are always the best course of action. Producers should look to test feed samples at harvest and prior to feedout to identify the risk posed to their animals." One area of particular concern is poultry: "There are lots of things that go on when you get into poultry, a lot of the same things, except we also have to worry about egg production and egg quality. That risk can be somewhat more significant for layers and breeder birds. You can get into some of the poultry species, turkeys are very sensitive to dahn, so what may be a very low risk to a broiler chicken could be a moderate to high risk for turkey. We get into ducks, ducks are very sensitive to Aflatoxin." So the best strategy for prevention is testing animal feeds before they are ingested.

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