Mycotoxin analysis kits on show
There is rising awareness of mycotoxin contamination of feed grains, reported in the Netherlands and Germany this year in feed originating from Serbia.
Prolonged exposure to high humidity or damage due to drought often results in aflatoxin contamination of grain before harvest or during storage.
The problem is usually detected in produce from Asia or Africa, but has increased in Europe due to bad weather in recent years with the EU’s Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed reporting several aflatoxin B1 notifications in maize of European origin since the harvest in autumn 2012.
After the UK’s difficult harvest, 97% of crops were found to be infected by Fusarium, source of one of the most common of more than 500 known mycotoxins.
If symptoms are seen in cattle such as reduced feed intakes, falling milk yield, high cell counts, acidosis and poor fertility, Alltech’s new 37+ testing kits can be used to test for mycotoxins in forage, feed or bedding.
Alltech also uses yeast-based technology for mycotoxin binder feed additives, designed to prevent productivity losses by absorbing harmful mycotoxins.
Judges at the space show said the ready-to-use Alltech 37 + kit provides results within two weeks, including a risk assessment report. In the US, it was used to test 329 maize grain and maize silage samples in the second half of 2012, and only 1% were free of mycotoxins.
Alltech said the numbers of mycotoxins present has increased in 2013 tests, attributed to mould growth.
An international breakthrough in detecting acidosis in dairy cows is claimed by a French company nominated for an innovation award at next September’s Space agricultural show in Rennes, in Brittany, France.
Ruminal acidosis is a metabolic disorder of high-producing dairy cows. It is related to a decrease in rumen pH due to diets rich in fermentable carbohydrates and poor in fibre. A decrease in rumination and salivation, and excessive rumen volatile fatty acids production are involved.
Researchers have estimated frequency of acidosis between 11% and 29% in early lactation, and 18% to 26% in mid-lactation.
Symptoms could include loose dungs, cud balls, drooling of saliva, and lameness. Even without symptoms, sub-clinical acidosis causes significant economic losses due to decrease in milk yield, change in milk composition, and increased susceptibility to diseases such as mastitis and lameness.
Sub-clinical acidosis is difficult to identify, but with the Acido Detect innovation from Eilyps, this metabolic disease can be spotted by milk analysis. Sick animals are detected at 78%, healthy animals at 96%.
The analysis could be built into milk recording, according to Eilyps.
