Mycotoxins in Ethanol Co-products: Modeling Economic Impacts on the Livestock Industry and Management Strategies

Abstract

The rapidly expanding U.S. ethanol industry is generating a growing supply of co-products, mostly in the form of dried distillers' grain and solubles (DDGS) or wet distillers' grains (WDG). In the United States, 90% of the co-products of maize-based ethanol are fed to livestock. An unintended consequence is that animals are likely to be fed higher levels of mycotoxins, which are concentrated up to three times in DDGS compared to grain. The model developed in this study estimates current losses to the swine industry from weight gain reduction due to fumonisins in added DDGS at $9 million ($2-18 million) annually. If there is complete market penetration of DDGS in swine feed with 20% DDGS inclusion in swine feed and fumonisins are not controlled, losses may increase to $147 million ($29-293 million) annually. These values represent only those losses attributable to one mycotoxin on one adverse outcome on one species. The total loss due to mycotoxins in DDGS could be significantly higher due to additive or multiplicative effects of multiple mycotoxins on animal health. If mycotoxin surveillance is implemented by ethanol producers, losses are shifted among multiple stakeholders. Solutions to this problem include methods to reduce mycotoxin contamination in both pre- and postharvest maize.

Effects of feeding corn naturally contaminated with AFB₁ and AFB₂ on performance and aflatoxin residues in broilers

“…Mycotoxins are secondary toxic metabolites of filamentous fungi, which are harmful to human and animal health thus causing significant financial losses to animal industries (Hussein and Brasel, 2001;Wu and Munkvold, 2008;Zhang and Caupert, 2012). Aflatoxins (AF) naturally occur in moldy grains and are a group of metabolites produced by some strains of Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus.…”

Síntese de nanomateriais de carbono a partir do resíduo de milho (DDGS)

“…O DDGS deve ser estocado em galpões adequados para que não perca as propriedades nutricionais, fato que aumenta o custo com este material. 10 A geração de DDGS tem aumentado em função do aumento na produção de etanol, sendo que somente em 2009 as indústrias norte--americanas produziram cerca de 3,2 x 10 7 t deste material. 11 Estudos apontam que a indústria do etanol tende a continuar crescendo, gerando aumento na produção do DDGS.…”

The Effect of a Mycotoxin Deactivation Product on Growth of Juvenile Rainbow Trout Fed Distillers Dried Grains

“…However, numerous reports have recently presented or cited data on detectable mycotoxins in DDGS, and concerns have been raised about the use of U.S. DDGS as animal feed (Garcia et al 2008;Rodrigues 2008;Taylor-Pickard 2008;Wu and Munkvold 2008;Ogiso et al 2013;Khatibi et al 2014).…”

“…A notable exception is the paper by Øverland et al (2013), who reported detectable levels of common mycotoxins in both of the DDGS products they examined. Øverland et al (2013) cautioned that mycotoxin contamination is a potential risk factor that could limit the use of these maize co-products in the fish feed industry due to the fact that mycotoxin levels in DDGS can be concentrated 3.0 times (Wu and Munkvold 2008) to 3.5 times (Zhang and Caupert 2012) compared with levels in raw maize. Strategies that can mitigate potential risks are therefore needed to facilitate the use of DDGS products in mycotoxin-sensitive species.…”