ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2023 37 animal health, well-being and performance. The challenges to consider are: - the unavoidable mycotoxins prevalence that increases globally; - the threat due to new, emerging mycotoxins or metabolites that can be more toxic than parent molecules; - and the admitted, but poorly known, rule of multi-contamination that can exacerbate the effects of individual mycotoxins. IMPACT OF MYCOTOXINS ON ANIMAL HEALTH AND PERFORMANCE The mycotoxins of most concern in animal nutrition, due to their toxicity and occurrence, are aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, ochratoxin, zearaleone, fumonisin and T-2 toxins. These can have various effects from chronic syndromes, with reduced productivity, impaired gut function or increased predisposition to infectious diseases and, less frequently, acute toxicoses with severe illness and death. The degree of toxicity that these compounds exert on the animal’s body is complex and depends primarily on the type of mycotoxin, their amounts, the duration of exposure, the overall health of the animal, sex, age, race, and many other factors. DIFFERENT STRATEGY TO ALLEVIATE MYCOTOXINS EFFECTS IN ANIMAL Due to hazardous and ubiquitous nature of mycotoxins contamination, different strategies are usually used to limit their negative effects on animal. • Decrease the biovalaibility of mycotoxins through adsorption, biotransformation/biodegration - In vitro results The aim of such solutions is to prevent or minimize exposure of animals to mycotoxins by reduction of mycotoxin uptake as well as distribution to the blood and target organs by decreasing their bioavailability in the gastro-intestinal tract. Adsorbing agents also called binding agents, adsorbents, binders, can be silica-based inorganic compounds, such as bentonites, montmorillonites, zeolite… or carbon-based organic polymers such as some complex indigestible carbohydrates (cellulose, polyssacharides from the cell walls of yeasts or bacteria). They are large molecular weight compounds that should be able to bind the mycotoxins in contaminated feed without dissociating in the gastrointestinal tract of the animal. In this way the toxin-adsorbing agent complex passes through the animal and is eliminated through faeces. A wide diversity of compounds has been reported for mycotoxins binding, especial-
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