Cargill's World Mycotoxin Report Provides The Animal Feed Industry With Actionable Insights For Enhancing Livestock Health

New this year, the report includes forage mycotoxin analysis in addition to providing a detailed look at mycotoxin contamination levels across the countries, regions and the globe

For farmers and producers around the world, proactive risk management is vital to protecting animal health and winning the battle against mycotoxins in feed. They need comprehensive data on contaminants and their risks to decide whether mitigating mycotoxin measures, like feed additives, are necessary. Cargill's world mycotoxin report contains more than 350,0000 mycotoxin analyses captured annually across 150+ feed plants, on-farm samplings and storage locations. This year’s report includes forage samples for the first time, capturing 17,000+ forage mycotoxin analyses globally, which are especially important for ruminant mycotoxin risk evaluation.

Cargill hosts the largest and most comprehensive mycotoxin contamination database in the world providing real-time information on the most problematic mycotoxins with their level of contamination and performance risk rates and species sensitivity when exposed to a given mycotoxin.

"Healthy animals perform better and drive better productivity for farmers. Despite the lack of visible symptoms, mycotoxins can wreak havoc on animal health and performance under the surface, for example, by weakening the immune system and degrading nutrient absorption and vaccine response,” explains Gilles Houdart, global micronutrition and health solutions director for Cargill's animal nutrition business. “This wealth of information enables us to promptly understand regional, species-specific, and ingredient-related risks in real-time.”

As a feed user and producer working alongside customers around the globe, Cargill developed a Mycotoxin Impact Calculator (MIC) to address these concerns. This in-house tool helps customers identify and mitigate mycotoxins with data-backed insights to maximize performance and outcomes for animals and producers' bottom line.

Key findings in Cargill's world mycotoxin report:
Global trends:

1. Slightly lower pressure: With a slightly reduced intensity compared to 2022, the percentage of positive samples remains notably high, with 70% surpassing the detection limit and 37% of the analyses exceeding Cargill's performance risk thresholds.
2. Mycotoxins to watch: The top three mycotoxins demanding attention due to their prevalence and risk levels are Deoxynivalenol (DON; Vomitoxin), Fumonisin (FUM), and Zearalenone (ZEN). In the past year, there was a notable increase (+7%) in FUM analyses surpassing performance risk thresholds, while both DON (-1%) and ZEN (-9%) experienced decreases.
3. Co-occurrence: Co-occurrence continues to be prevalent, with 78% of the samples tested for three or more mycotoxins indicating contamination with multiple mycotoxins.

"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.

The complete 2023 World Mycotoxin Report can be found here (https://mycotoxins.com/KnowledgeCenter).