Cargill bolsters animal nutrition with real-time mycotoxin monitoring tools

U.S- Cargill has developed a Mycotoxin Impact Calculator (MIC) to help farmers and producers address mycotoxin concerns in animal feed.

Farmers and producers worldwide need to be proactive in managing risks to ensure animal health and combat mycotoxins in feed. They require comprehensive data on contaminants and associated risks to determine the need for mitigation measures like feed additives.

Cargill’s global mycotoxin report compiles over 350,000 annual analyses from over 150 feed plants, on-farm samplings, and storage locations. This year’s report also includes forage samples for the first time, with over 17,000 globally captured forage mycotoxin analyses, which are particularly important for evaluating ruminant mycotoxin risk.

Cargill has the most extensive mycotoxin contamination database globally, providing real-time information on problematic mycotoxins, contamination levels, and their impact on animal performance and sensitivity.

Gilles Houdart, Cargill’s global micronutrition and health solutions director for animal nutrition, emphasizes the importance of healthy animals for optimal productivity and explains how mycotoxins can harm animal health and performance, even without visible symptoms, by compromising the immune system and hindering nutrient absorption and vaccine response.

With this wealth of data, Cargill can promptly assess regional, species-specific, and ingredient-related risks in real time. As a feed user and producer working closely with customers worldwide, Cargill has developed the Mycotoxin Impact Calculator (MIC) to address these concerns.

This in-house tool utilizes data-driven insights to help customers identify and mitigate mycotoxins, ultimately improving animal performance and boosting the bottom line.

Key findings

Cargill’s global mycotoxin report reveals several key findings from their extensive analyses. There has been a slight decrease in overall mycotoxin pressure compared to the previous year. Despite this, 70% of samples still surpassed the detection limit, with 37% exceeding Cargill’s performance risk thresholds.

Deoxynivalenol (DON), Fumonisin (FUM), and Zearalenone (ZEN) emerged as the top three mycotoxins of concern due to their prevalence and risk levels. While the past year witnessed notable increases in FUM analyses surpassing performance risk thresholds, both DON and ZEN experienced decreases.

The report also highlights the prevalent co-occurrence of multiple mycotoxins, with a staggering 78% of samples testing positive for three or more mycotoxins. These findings underscore the complexity and challenges posed by mycotoxin contamination in the global food supply chain.

Our customers need real-time actionable data to help them make sound decisions for their business. Thanks to our data centralization efforts and decision-making tools, Cargill helps to characterize mycotoxin risk for each situation to adopt the appropriate solution,” adds the author of the report, Clement Soulet, Global Anti-mycotoxin Agent Category Manager for Cargill’s animal nutrition business.

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