Mycotoxins in Dairy Feed and its Harmful Impact on Animal Health: Diagnostic Aids and Treatment: A Big Animal Health Challenge

Monitoring the certain health conditions and properly identifying the diseases are the most important steps in getting the high productions from dairy cattle. Mycotoxins are chemicals produced by fungi (molds) under certain conditions, not essential for fungal itself growth or reproduction, having toxic affects to animals and humans. More than 250 mycotoxins have been detected. For many toxins, their toxicological characteristics have not been fully determined until now. There are many kinds of mycotoxins, causing different kinds of mycotoxicoses. Mycotoxins enter into the body, usually by consumption of contaminated feed, do acts on cells causing the mycotoxicoses. Mycotoxicoses are not contagious, nor is there significant stimulation of the immune system. Aflatoxin produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus, commonly found in corn, milo, cottonseed and peanuts, while its concentrations in grains is very enough to cause acute aflatoxicosis. The five important aflatoxins are aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, G2, and M1. Aflatoxin is a liver poison (hepatotoxin) in all species that consume it, however, ruminants tolerate it better than do monogastrics or poultry. It causes liver damage and liver cancer at high doses. Aflatoxin exposure leads to depress the immune system, causes liver damage, liver cancer and abortions. Depression, anorexia, reduced gain or milk production, subnormal body temperature and slow rumen motility are the clinical signs of aflatoxicosis. Ingestion of ergot alkaloids contain in the sclerotia of Claviceps spp, commonly found in cereal grains causing Ergot toxicosis, leads to cause agalactia in lactating females. Fumonisins are produced by Fusarium moniliforme and F. proliferatum, found primarily in white and yellow corn, having three kinds, fumonisins B1, B2, and B3. Equine leukoencephalomalacia (ELE) is a fatal disease of horses and Porcine pulmonary syndrome in swine are caused by fumonisins, through inhibition of enzymes involved in the production of sphingosine (important component of cell membranes for neurons) from sphinganine. Vomitoxin or Deoxynivalenol is produced by Fusarium roseum (F. graminearum) and F. moniliforme. It is commonly found in corn, wheat, barley, milo and rarely found in oats, hay or forages. Vomitoxin is not very toxic, associated with feed refusal and decreased feed consumption leads to affect the animal performance by inhibiting the protein and nucleic acid synthesis. Zearalenone is produced by Fusarium roseum (F. graminearum) and F. moniliforme, found in corn, wheat, barley, milo and occasionally in oats. Zearalenone is a chemical that can act similarly to the female sex hormone estrogen, leads to disrupt the estrus cycle in females, causes infertility and feminization in males, and precocious puberty in sexually immature females. Zearalenone content typically found in grains. Its production become increase due to unusual environmental conditions during the growing season and insufficiently stored dried grain usually having enough adversely effect on animals. Mycotoxins present in the feed/ration can be treated by adopting Modern agricultural practices, giving usually supportive therapy and Antidotes, giving activated charcoal to decrease the ingested mycotoxins absorption, using feed additives as mycotoxins binders, removing, stopping and preventing further exposure of contamination to animal feed.