Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of many species of fungi that can cause acute or chronic toxicity in animals. Although over 1000 mycotoxins have been identified so far, those of great importance in mycotoxin treatment protocol and feed safety is primarily formed by the known five fungal genes known as Aspergillus Claviceps Alternaria, Penicillium and Aflatoxin. The toxins in various fungi vary depending on their chemical structure, and the most toxic species among all is AFB, mainly produced by family Aspergillus which is grouped as a carcinogen. In order to understand the whole concept of the mycotoxin treatment protocol, it would be wise for us to outline some basics about this fungi related bacteria and its effects on animals’ bodies.
Strategies of Mycotoxin detoxification and reduction
Physical methods
Decontamination of any fungi related by physical approach mainly includes separation and sorting, washing the solvent, heating, adsorption and irradiation. The commonly used technique in any physical detoxification is separation and sorting, which work because this bacterium is not always uniformly distributed, and its appearance is in the form of broken discoloured and mouldy parts. Here the specific gravity of all contaminated cereals is always lower than the normal or the bacteria-free ones. These unique features enable aspiration, sieving and gravity separation in any photoelectric separation sieve. For instance, if you doubt or suspect that your corn or maize seeds might have these bacteria, you might as well eliminate the ones with coloured surfaces and the ones that have started showing moulds. This is the easiest way to isolate any traces of mycotoxins as it helps you remove any package during an early stage. Additionally, a near-infrared optical and spectroscopy visual sorting approach can also be applied to detect the affected corn and wheat kernels with more than 94 per cent level of precision.
Solvent and washing extraction
According to the whole concept of water-soluble or oil-soluble properties of mycotoxin, it could be easy and simple to decontaminate any traces of this bacteria by just washing with any organic solvent or through water extraction. Washing and floating with distilled water can remove all the traces of Afs, ZEN, fumonisins and trichothecenes with 50-76 per cent accuracy. Notably, washing and floating with a water solution consisting of more than 30 per cent of sodium chloride, sucrose and one mole of sodium carbonate to increase the removal speed of fumonisins from wheat and corn. A combination of floating and washing approaches has recorded an 87 per cent removal rate in all related toxins.
Heating
Thermal treatment has been one of the best options applied to decontaminate any traces of mycotoxins in animal feeds since old age. The efficiency of this approach depends on the overall chemical concentration and structure of the mycotoxins, duration, PH, ionic concentration and temperature during the whole process. As many studies have found, this approach has a higher recovery than all options for treatment and recuperation. In conclusion, if you suspect your grains or feeds are have been affected by mycotoxins, you should consider one of the treatment protocols above or many others online.
