ISSUE FOCUS 20 FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2023 Impaired health status of the animals in stressful situations or an aggravation of the disease after antibiotic treatment? The culprit might be endotoxins. WHAT ARE ENDOTOXINS? Origin: Endotoxins, together with exotoxins, are bacterial toxins. In contrast to exotoxins, which are actively secreted by living bacteria, endotoxins (name “endotoxin” greek; endo = inside; toxin = poison) are components of the outer cell membrane of gram-negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Shigella, and cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). They are only released in case of - bacterial death due to effective host defense mechanism or activities of certain antibiotics - bacterial growth (shedding) (Todar, 2008-2012) “The precondition for endotoxins to be harmful is their presence in the bloodstream. In the bloodstream, low levels of endotoxins can still be handled by the immune defense, higher levels can get critical. An increase of endotoxins in the organism results from higher input and/or lower clearance or detoxification rate.” ARE ENDOTOXINS BEHIND YOUR LOW LIVESTOCK PRODUCTIVITY? Dr. Inge Heinzl Editor EW Nutrition Figure 1 :The location of endotoxins within the bacterial cell© Prof. Dr. med. Marina A. Freudenberg
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