Effectiveness of a Microbial Feed Additive in Preventing Deoxynivalenol-Related Toxicity in Growing Pigs

The trichothecene deoxynivalenol may cause significant economic losses in pig farming due to reduced feed intake and growth performance. Biological detoxification of mycotoxins has been in focus over the last decade. Besides adsorption, one of the most studied biological methods is microbial detoxification of trichothecenes. There are bacterial strains described in literature, which have been shown to detoxify deoxynivalenol (DON) . However, studies on their ability to detoxify DON in the digestive system of animals are still sparse. The main aim of our study was to evaluate the effect of a noncommercially available formulation of a bacterial strain on DON uptake and toxicity in growing pigs. In a 43- day experiment, 48 crossbred (Landrace-Yorkshire/Duroc-Duroc) weaning pigs were fed pelleted feed made from naturally-contaminated oat, with DON at four concentration levels: (1) control diet (DON