Strategies for detoxifying vomitoxin using innovative chemical and biological approaches in post-weaning piglets
Dr. Joshua Gong, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph Research & Development Centre
Summary
With global warming, contamination of feed ingredients by the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), occurs more often, thus compromising swine production efficiency. Sodium metabisulfite (SMBS) is a chemical that is able to detoxify DON. However, in the stomach SMBS decomposes quickly producing sulfur dioxide which may lead to loss of its detoxifying ability and reduce feed intake in animals. Use of microorganisms for DON detoxification is another promising approach. In our previous research, a bacterial isolate was found to be able to detoxify DON under the lab conditions. In the current project, we aimed to investigate the possibility of applying the SMBS and the bacteria isolate within animal feed for mitigating the impact of DON. We developed an encapsulation method for preventing the release of SMBS in the stomach, therefore, most of which can arrive at the intestines to detoxify the mycotoxin. The encapsulation process did not compromise the detoxification function of SMBS. The encapsulated SMBS exhibited good storage properties at the room temperature; thus, it can be conveniently used on farm.
The bacteria isolate was found to fully detoxify DON under anaerobic condition with continuous culturing and tolerated a certain degree of oxygen. However, the bacteria isolate was found sensitive to both bile salts and low pH in the stomach. In conclusion, this research indicates that both SMBS and the bacteria isolate can potentially be used with feeding to detoxify DON in swine. However, protection such as encapsulation is required to achieve the full detoxifying function when it is delivered to the animal intestines. Research is ongoing to evaluate both products in pig trials under the AAFC Swine Cluster III.
Project No: 17-22
Time period: Apr 2018-Mar 2022
Funding provided by Ontario Pork
