Farmers Review Africa July/Aug 2017 Farmers Review Africa July/Aug 2017 | Page 20

Effective mycotoxin management:
mission possible
Mycotoxins are toxic substances produced by
naturally occurring metabolic processes in
fungi. Mycotoxins can invade the seeds before
the actual harvest whilst the crop is still on the
eld, or alternatively, mould growth can occur
during storage at the feed mill or on the farm.
As a result, high numbers of mycotoxins could
already be present in the ingredients before
they are received in feed mills or farms. Mould
can also grow during feed processing
especially when the temperature and
humidity in the feed is increased during
July - August 2017
m i x i ng . F i n a l ly, m ou l d g row t h an d
mycotoxin production can also occur at the
farm level from improperly cleaned silos,
t r ans p or t s y s t e ms an d fe e d e r s .  e
production of mycotoxins is enhanced by
factors such as the moisture of the substrate
(10 to 20%), the relative humidity (≥ 70%),
the temperature (0 to 50°C, depending on the
fungus species) and the availability of oxygen
(Kanora and Maes, 2009). e most
important role of feed mills is to keep the
levels of mycotoxins as low as possible while
[20] FARMERS
REVIEW AFRICA
multi-mycotoxin contamination should be
also avoided. Most of the mycotoxins occur
concurrently and a commodity usually
contains more than one mycotoxin at the same
time.
Test the raw ingredients
e best practical way to control mycotoxin
levels is to use rapid test kit systems for the
analysis of mycotoxins in raw ingredients
which are not yet in silos. Different rapid test
kit systems are validated for different
www.farmersreviewafrica.com