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Seven years ago, Cargill animal nutrition business built a global, web-based tool powered by worldwide mycotoxins analyses. Today, with 300,000+ mycotoxin analyses captured each year from 135,000+ raw material samples taken across 150+ global feed plants, farms, and ingredient storage locations, Cargill hosts the most comprehensive mycotoxin contamination database in the world.
Thanks to data centralization efforts, Cargill generates a critical information mass to characterize regional, species, and/or ingredients risk in real time. When calculating mycotoxin risk there are three key considerations:
- Contamination rate (% positive analyses with at least one mycotoxin)
- Contamination level (analyzed mycotoxin concentration)
- Species sensitivity
Key global trends
With the above inputs in mind, we saw noteworthy data trends in 2022, including:
- The “Big Four.” Like the previous year, 2022 analyses data show deoxynivalenol (DON; Vomitoxin) (81% contamination occurrence), Zearalenone (ZEN) (80%), Fumonisin (FUM) (74%), and Aflatoxin (AFL) (70%) as the top four mycotoxins worldwide. Ochratoxin (OTA) (60%) and T2 toxin (T2) (64%) show the lowest contamination rates, though both increased from 2021 to reach above 60% contamination occurrence in 2022.
- Increased number of positive analyses above detection limits. In 2022, 75% of the 300K+ analyses conducted were positive above detection limits for the mycotoxin being tested. From 2021, positive analyses increased 3%. The largest prevalence increases include ZEN (+8%), T2 (+7%), and AFL (+6%).
- Mycotoxin co-occurrence. It’s important to note: the more mycotoxins you test for, the more you will find. This year, 92% of the 135,000 raw ingredient samples collected were contaminated with at least one mycotoxin. Of samples tested for 3 mycotoxins, 85% were positive above detection limits for 2 or 3 mycotoxins and of samples tested for 6 mycotoxins, 84% were positive for 4 or more mycotoxins.
Year-over-year contamination
We observed a slight increase in mycotoxin contamination levels in 2022 and expect this trend to continue. From 2021, analyses above Cargill performance risk thresholds increased 4%. The largest performance risk increases include ZEN (+12%), T2 (+8%), and AFL (+3%). DON and FUM remain at high levels. Increases were due to seasonal weather variation, improved technology enhancing contamination detection abilities, increased byproduct and alternative ingredient use, and agricultural practice changes such as crop rotation, less tillage, and lower fungicide usage.
Swine Global and Regional Mycotoxin Risk
February 9, 2023 - Cargill
