Strategies to prevent and reduce mycotoxins for compound feed manufacturing

Mycotoxins are the secondary metabolites of fungi, especially moulds. They have over 300 types and can be easily produced ubiquitously by moulds. Many mycotoxins have been found to be toxic to most farmed animals through the diets. With the globalization of feed ingredient trade and the rapid climate changes, occurrence of mycotoxins become increasingly difficult to be predicted. Thus, the unnoticeable mycotoxin hazards can directly impact the animal production systems. Preventing or minimizing mycotoxins in feed ingredients has become an important topic from the aspect of feed manufacturing industry. The aim of this literature review is to summarize the effective strategies for feed manufacturers to minimize the mycotoxin hazards. Prevention methods, including pre-harvest field management and post-harvest storage management, are still the most effective strategies, since mycotoxins are hardly to be eliminated once they are present in the ingredients. Moreover, mycotoxin reducing effects of several feed manufacturing technologies are also reviewed. In this review, the mycotoxin reducing methods are mainly categorized into 4 methodologies: physical methods, thermal methods, chemical methods, and mycotoxin controlling feed additives. The first three methodologies mainly focus on how to reduce mycotoxins in feed ingredients during processes, while the last one on how to compensate the adverse impacts of mycotoxin contaminated diets in animal bodies. The results showed that most of the methods reviewed show evident mycotoxin reducing effects, but of different consistencies. On the other hand, many practical factors that can affect the feasibility of each method in practical manufacturing are also discussed in this review. In conclusion, mycotoxin prevention management and the processing stage of cleaning and sorting are still the most efficient strategies to control mycotoxin hazards in current feed manufacturing