Evaluation of increasing levels of mycotoxin-containing corn fines and mitigants on nursery pig growth performance

The effects of feeding corn fines (screenings) containing mycotoxin levels greater than the FDA guidance (fumonisins) and advisory (deoxynivalenol) levels were evaluated using 150 crossbred pigs (initial BW: 6.42 ± 0.06 kg; 90 barrows and 60 gilts) in an 8-wk study by adding contaminated corn fines to create six diets. The corn fines used contained prestudy analyzed mycotoxin levels of 20,334 ppb total fumonisin, 1,499 ppb zearalenone, and 5,075 ppb total deoxynivalenol. The corn fines were added into a corn-soybean meal basal diet at 0%, 20%, 40%, and 60% corn fines (Diets 1 to 4, respectively). Diet 5 was created by adding 40 ppm of boron (as sodium tetraborate decahydrate, 11.34% B) to Diet 4. Diet 6 was created by adding 0.25% Biofix Plus with FUMzyme (BPF; dsm-firmenich, Plainsboro, NJ) to Diet 4. Dietary treatments were fed for 6 wk; after that, all pigs received a common corn-soybean meal basal diet without fines for about 2 wk. The lightest, median, and heaviest pigs in a pen were selected at week 3, and serum was collected from those pigs on weeks 3, 6, and 8. Serum clinical chemistry and sphinganine:sphingosine ratio (SA:SO) were determined at week 6. Increasing fines linearly decreased ADG during weeks 1–6 (P = 0.03). Comparing Diets 4 and 5 to Diet 1 during weeks 1–6, there was a decrease in ADG (P < 0.05); subsequently, the difference in Diets 4 and 5 compared to Diet 1 was no longer significant for weeks 1–8. Comparing Diet 6 to Diets 1 and 4 during weeks 1–6, pigs fed Diet 6 were able to recover 57% of the lost ADG that occurred when corn fines were increased from 0% to 60%. During week 7–8 (all pigs on a common diet), pigs on Diets 5 and 6 had an increase in ADG compared to Diet 1. SA:SO linearly increased as fines in the diet increased (Diets 1 to 4; P = 0.001), but the addition of BPF ameliorated 95% of this increase. In conclusion, as mycotoxins increased, pigs exhibited negative effects in ADG, but the additive Biofix Plus with FUMzyme ameliorated a portion of these effects. Further, the recovery from week 7–8 from all pigs does show the importance of feeding clean corn to optimize ADG, ADFI, and gain/feed ratio.