2024 Toxin Update

In this episode of the AK Podcast, Mike Donaldson and guest Dr. James Coomer discuss the increasing concern over toxins, specifically mycotoxins, in livestock nutrition. They explore the sources of these toxins, their impact on animal health, and the importance of testing for their presence in feed. Dr. Coomer shares insights on the symptoms of toxin exposure in livestock, the differences in toxin effects between dairy and beef cattle, and strategies for managing these toxins in feed. The conversation also highlights the role of Agri-King's AKMC product in addressing mycotoxin challenges and offers a future outlook on the ongoing issues related to toxins in livestock nutrition.

Takeaways

Toxins, specifically mycotoxins, are a growing concern in livestock nutrition.
Mycotoxins are produced by molds and fungi as a protective mechanism.
The ability to detect and test for mycotoxins has significantly improved.
Mold growth requires moisture, appropriate temperatures, and oxygen.
Stress on molds can lead to toxin production.
Symptoms of toxin exposure include reproductive issues and reduced immune response.
Testing for mycotoxins should start with the Total Mixed Ration (TMR).
Dairy cows are more susceptible to toxins due to higher stress levels.
AKMC is a product designed to help manage mycotoxins in livestock feed.
Future solutions may involve developing fungicides that target mycotoxin-producing molds.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Toxins in Livestock Nutrition
• 1:30 Understanding Mycotoxins and Their Impact
• 4:08 Where do toxins come from?
• 7:05 What are some of the symptoms of toxins?
• 9:00 How should we test for toxins?
• 13:23 What should we do if our livestock have toxins?
• 17:00 Agri-King's AKMC
• 19:24 Future of toxins
• 22:31 Final Thoughts on Toxin Management

Transcript

Chris (00:01)
Hello and welcome to the AK Podcast where we are going to discuss science and nutrition through livestock with some of the best and the brightest people in the business. I'm your host, Chris Radke in the Sales Department here at Agri-King and with me today is the Director of Field Services and a Member of the Sales Management Team, Mr. Mike Donaldson. Mike, we just went through Thanksgiving. How was your Thanksgiving?

Mike (00:26)
It was very, very nice. Kind of, kind of different to have the Detroit Lions, who is my NFC Team, kind of different to have them the good game of the day instead of the Cowboys. But, everything turned out well. had a very nice time. How was your's Chris?

Chris (00:41)
Great. We went up north to my sister and just kind of hung out with them. We don't get to see them very often, so that was wonderful. And of course, we overate, so great times for Thanksgiving. Mike, what are we gonna talk about today?

Mike (00:50)
Ha ha ha ha.

Well, Chris, today we're joined by Dr. James Coomer from the Nutrition Department at Agri-King. James is one of our nutritionists and he has spent a great deal of time learning and working with toxins, their impact on livestock and what we can do about those problems that were probably being caused by toxins. Welcome, James, how are you doing?

James Coomer (01:16)
Doing well, Mike and Chris. It's good to be with you today on the podcast and had an exciting Thanksgiving myself. went south instead of north though, Chris. It was a little bit warmer but still cool.

Chris (01:28)
probably, yes

Mike (01:29)
Well, and that's why you're the smart person on the podcast that Chris referenced. That's a good deal. Well, James, in

Chris (01:32)
Yeah, yeah, definitely smarter.

James Coomer (01:33)
Yeah.

Mike (01:37)
recent years, it seems like toxins are being talked about more and more as a problem in livestock nutrition. I've been with Agri-King for a little over 30 years. It's certainly been something that's always existed, but problems with them seem to be getting worse, not better.

James Coomer (01:55)
Thank

Mike (01:59)
To start with, what does that term toxins really referencing? What's that applying to?

James Coomer (02:06)
Good question Mike. We talk about toxins but it's really the full term is mycotoxins and it's a toxin that comes from microbes or in this case molds or fungi that produce this toxin or chemical element as a protective mechanism for them to give them a competitive advantage when they're growing.

So you're right, it does seem to have gotten worse over time and there are some reasons for that. And I think part of it is our recognition of them and the increased ability to detect them and do something about them.

Mike (02:46)
So you're saying that while they may be a bigger problem than they used to be, it's now being recognized and identified and things that we always knew weren't right, we now sometimes know are the result of toxins?

James Coomer (03:05)
Yes, our ability to test for mycotoxins has improved drastically. Like you, I've been in the industry for little over 30 years, and the ability to test for and detect them has improved over these 30 years. But in addition, our ability to do something about the effects they're having.

have improved so it benefits us to test for them more. And then also the effects of the mycotoxins become more pronounced as our productivity increases because as the productivity increases the cow's body is running on a little finer edge I guess, kind of like a highly skilled athlete, Olympic athletes are running right on the edge, they're always pushing the edge. As we push for higher and higher production we're asking those cows to do more and more.

Mike (03:48)
Okay.

James Coomer (03:55)
puts a little more stress on their body and the more stress there is, the more mycotoxins or other infectious agents cause problems for the animals.

Mike (04:04)
Okay. Well, let me ask you three questions all at once and can decide how you want to answer them and how to cover it. So the first

James Coomer (04:09)
Okay, sure.

Mike (04:14)
be just, and you sort of touched on it, but where do toxins come from? What are the growing conditions or the weather conditions that seem to be the cause of higher levels of toxins? And can toxin levels continue to go up once the crop's already in storage?

James Coomer (04:35)
Good questions, Mike. And I'm going to start a little bit in reverse order. The storage part, there are some toxins that can be produced during storage. There are certain molds. But for the most part, most of the toxins come in from the field with the crops. The molds grow on the crop while it's in the field and produce the toxins there. Once the crop's in storage, we generally have very little increase in toxins with the exception of one or two specific toxins that can be increased. In terms of how do we get the toxins on the crops, why do we have them or what produces the toxins, there's really two things I like to talk to people about. One, you've got to get mold growth to get toxins to begin with. So you need conditions that are good for molds to grow. That means you got to have adequate moisture there or activating water for the mold to grow.   Temperatures that are appropriate for the molds and some molds grow under warmer temperatures, some under cooler temperatures. So it just depends on the mold with which one's specific. And of course you have to have oxygen present. But just because the mold grows doesn't mean we're going to have toxins present. In order for toxins to be produced, you need to have mold growth, but then you need to have a stressor for the molds so that they think they're under stress and then they produce the toxins as a protective mechanism for their self. if you just have lots of mold growth, doesn't mean you're going to have toxins. You need to stress the mold in order to get the toxins as well.

Mike (06:10)
I didn't realize that that was a reaction, that the molds were responding to something to drive the toxins up. I thought molds and toxins were sort of I didn't realize that.

James Coomer (06:20)
Yeah, that's what a lot of people think. A good example is I had one of our field people called me one day. like, I've got a sample sent in. We need to get tests for toxa-A. I know it's going to be terrible. They took the sample in like January, February. The corn had been in the field, and they were just harvesting it. And he sent me a picture of it. And this year, corn was just black. It had mold all over it. was just nasty. And I warned him. said, just because it's black with mold doesn't mean we're going to have toxins. And sure enough, we sent it in had almost no toxins in it because the molds had just grown and grown and grown. They were never stressed. that doesn't mean it's good feed to feed the cows, but it just meant we didn't have toxins in it.

Mike (06:52)
Really?  Well, sure. Yeah,  suppose that maybe I haven't really dealt with toxins. I'm currently not doing anything for toxins. What are some of the things I might see in my animals? What are some symptoms that an animal's being adversely affected by toxins?

James Coomer (07:26)
Good question. Really, I'll break it down. There's one specific mycotoxin called xerallinone. And xerallinone, the chemical composition of it looks very similar to estrogen. So the effects it has on the animal are very much related to reproductive type things. If you're having reproductive issues in your herd, there's a good chance we've got some xerallinone in your feed. And it has that specific effect.

Most of the other toxins are more generalized effects and they affect the digestive tract and the immune system. So anything that would be related to, I mean, you'll see with all the toxins, you have reduced response to vaccines. The animal doesn't respond as well to vaccines. They're more susceptible to secondary infections of any kind, really because the toxin is just creating a more stressful environment for the animal, which puts their immune system under more stress, makes them more susceptible to infection by anything else. Oftentimes we'll see animals off feed and not eating as well. Production may go up or down. It's not gonna go up because of mycotoxins, but you might see production going up and down because of stronger load of toxins and then get into a lighter load and the cow is responding to that.

Mike (08:53)
Okay, so let's continue on my pretend farm.

Mike (09:00)
How would you recommend I go about testing to see if I have toxins? You're gonna send me to each individual ingredient, a TMR, what's your preferred way to test?

James Coomer (09:14)
Good question. As far as testing, I'll say there's really two types of testing out there. The most prominent method used to be the ELISA test. Neogen was the company that was most prominent in that. We actually used to use that here at Agri-King. And a lot of feed mills use that as a screening test because it's very quick, very quick results, easy to run. They can run it right at the feed mill. But it's very...It's not very specific in terms of the quantity there. It's more of a screening test. Yes, you do. The other downside to the ELISA test is it's a separate prep on the sample for each toxin you want to test for. So if you want to test for three different toxins, that's three different sample preps. More recently, we've moved into using HPLC-MC. It's High Pressure Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry. Mass Spectrometry.  Tongue tied, but mass spec.

Mike (10:16)
I think it's a mouthful.

James Coomer (10:19)
So the liquid chromatography with mass spec, which is what we went to about two years ago here at Agri-King, the plus side of it is very specific. It's very quantitative. We get very good results and we know really well how much there is in there, but we can do one sample prep and test for multiple toxins. Here at Agri-King, we test for six different toxins with a single sample prep. So it's more effective that way and we can get a broader spectrum of analysis. When you're asking about what samples, from a dairy standpoint, we like to start with just the TMR analysis, the total mixed ration that we're feeding the cows, because that's what the cow's eating. If we don't detect any toxins in there, we don't really need to test anything else, because that tells us.

If we do test and detect high levels of toxins there, it might warrant testing individual ingredients so we can determine where the toxins are coming from, so that we can make some decisions about do we feed more or less of one ingredient or another, if that's a possibility. If they're purchased ingredients, we always have that possibility. If it's in the forages on the farm, we might not have a choice, but at least we can know is it coming from the corn or distillers grains that we're getting from the feed mill or is it coming from the corn silage bunker that we're feeding out of from our own farm.

Mike (11:48)
Now just to just briefly touch on the other aspect of nutient, or I'm sorry, of ruminant that Agri-King spends a lot of time on. While looking at slightly different things, I take it toxins are no better for a beef steer than they are for a dairy cow.

James Coomer (12:07)
I will say they're no better for them, certainly. We generally think beef animals are more tolerant of toxins. Typically, they're probably not more tolerant. It's just harder to recognize. With the dairy cow, we're milking her twice or three times a day, every day. If she hits toxins, milk production's off today, we know it today. A beef cow, we got toxins we may be only weighing them every six months or something. So we may not detect that problem for a long time out. I would say for the most part, the dairy cows are probably under a little more stress than the beef cattle are. But heavy feedlot animals certainly are under stress.

Mike (12:56)
So I'm sorry, go ahead.

James Coomer (12:56)
And I was going say another place on the beef where we're seeing a lot of response in dealing with toxins, the transition time where beef calves are weaned off their mothers and then transition to a feedlot situation, that's a stressful time for them and they're much more susceptible to issues with mycotoxins.

Mike (13:12)
Mm-hmm.
So going back to my pretend dairy farm, I've done some testing on my TMR. I've got issues with one or more toxins. What are the things I can do to try and get through this? And maybe even touch on not only adjusting what feed stuffs I use, what are some things that people put in because I have toxins and...maybe touch briefly on some of the things people use that aren't quite approved to be used that way.

James Coomer (13:55)
Good questions. I think you started right place there. The first thing we do is identify where the toxins are coming from and if we can eliminate the toxins, that's step number one. If it's possible, let's eliminate them. If we can't eliminate them, how do we reduce them in the feed so that we reduce that stress on the animal? If we can't do anything, if it's in our forages and we've got to feed those forages, we can't afford to go buy new forages.
So how do we deal with them? They're in the diet. What can we do?
There are a number of things.
There are feed additives you can put into the diet. When I started in the business 30 years ago, like yourself, they're really just clay products that we'd recommend putting in. And the clay products are really just a porous product that might have an electrical charge that you hope that the mycotoxin attaches to and reduces the chances that the mycotoxin can have negative effects on the animal. Still, that
method is still somewhat effective on aflatoxin which is one specific toxin. It is also the only spike of toxin that's regulated because if it's found in the milk then the producer has to dump that milk and not be able to sell it if it's at a certain level. So
that is a major concern and the clays do a fairly good job of binding aflatoxin and getting it out of the system.

Beyond that, most of the other mycotoxins do not have a good affinity for those clays, so they're not as effective as helping with them. One product that many people have used in the livestock industry, even though it's not labeled for or really approved for use, is charcoal. It's kind of the gold standard. It's kind of unique that FDA has approved it for use in humans. You can go to the grocery store or...or the pharmacy and buy charcoal and take it yourself, but USDA has not approved it for use in animals. So we can't technically use it in cattle, but it is an absorbent product. Again, using more of an attractant, trying to bind the toxins and get them out of the system. More recently in my career and in certainly the last 10 years, the use of more specific targeting products using yeast products which have some binding sites on yeast cell walls to try to bind them. Even more recently the use of enzyme technology to attack specific mycotoxins such as ralanone and fumonacin. I know those two mycotoxins, they're products on the market that have enzymes in them to attack those two specific enzymes and they don't just bind them, they actually break them down and make them non-toxic so they can't cause a problem with the animal.

Mike (17:02)
At Agri-King, we're, I think, justifiably proud of what our AKMC product can do to help a farm deal with toxins. Could you give us a little description of that and how that's helping?

James Coomer (17:16)
Sure, as in most of the things we've developed here at Agri-King, we try to think through the whole process and put together the best solution to a problem. And so with AKMC, the product we introduced about three years ago to deal with mycotoxins or challenge feeds that have mycotoxins in them, we developed a product that has an absorbent in it. It does have some clay in it. It has some yeast cell wall in it to help from that standpoint.
We also developed some microbial products that produce enzymes that attack specifically xeralinone. There's a microbe in there that produces a xeralinone esterase enzyme. So it breaks down xeralinone. We've seen phenomenal responses. In addition, we put some nutrients in that product that help the animal deal with the effects of mycotoxins. Mycotoxins affect the gut lining of the digestive tract. We've got some nutrients in there that help the gut lining do better. Secondarily, if the mycotoxins make it into the bloodstream of the animal, they go to the liver to be detoxified. And that's a very oxidative process. It can cause damage to the liver. So we've put a high level of antioxidants in there to help the liver deal with those oxidative stress, so the animal is better able to deal with the stress of the effects of those mycotoxins, in addition to getting rid of the mycotoxins themselves.

Mike (18:44)
Now, does a farm have to be on a full Agri-King nutrition program to be able to get these benefits from AKMC?

James Coomer (18:54)
No, they don't. Now, I think they'll get greater benefit if they're on both our nutritional program and AKMC, but no, AKMC can be included into any nutritional program and can be used within any species. We've been talking about dairy, but we've had tremendous success in both poultry and swine as well. So we've used it in dairy, we've used it in beef, swine, poultry, all, and had very good success with it.

Mike (19:21)
Wonderful. Well, if you could look over there to the side of your desk that we can't see into that crystal ball, I know all nutritionists have, what do you see in the future as far as ongoing issues with toxins getting worse, less of a problem? What do you think we're in for?

James Coomer (19:41)
I think toxins are with us for the long haul. I don't think we'll ever get rid of them completely. I think there are opportunities to reduce mycotoxins before they ever get to the animal. One thing we have seen for sure is reduced mycotoxins when you reduce the amount of plant material left on the field after harvesting. The more crop residue you leave out there, the more chance there is for the mold off of that crop infecting the next crop next year, which increases the chance of the mycotoxins. So the increased use of no-till farming over the last 25 years has increased that amount of toxins, I think, as well. Another thing, to my knowledge, has not been looked at yet, but here in the Midwest, I see the crop dusters out every year. They're spraying for  molds already, already, the issue is currently the fungicides they're spraying for are not the funguses that are causing the mycotoxins. They're spraying for funguses that are negatively affecting the production of the crop. Could they somehow down the road develop fungicides that will also help reduce the growth of molds that are going to produce mycotoxins? I think that could be a solution, but that's going to have to be pushed from the livestock industry to convince the crop farmers that that's a value and the livestock producers are going to want to pay more money for it before the crop farmers will start doing.  I think that's certainly, I don't want to say we'll not have any mycotoxins in the future because I think they will be there, but also lived through the 70s when they said we were going to run out oil in 10 and they found more oil.
They found more ways to get oil out of the ground.
I'm not saying somebody's not going to develop something to help get rid of molds and mycotoxins in the future, but it's not there yet.

Mike (21:45)
Any final thoughts on the issue or the topic of toxins, Dr. Coomer?

James Coomer (21:53)
Get out and test for them. I heard last year from a number of nutritionists that they didn't think mycotoxins were a problem because they said if they were, when I use these products out here that everybody sells that help with them, that they would have seen some results. But I think the problem is they use products that were not successful in helping with the toxins. wasn't that they didn't have toxins, they just didn't have the right solution. testing for them, see if you've got them.  Look for opportunities to help people improve their production with the tools that are available.

Mike (22:31)
Perfect. Well, Chris, think that means we're coming to the end of this episode.
What'd learn today?

Chris (22:37)
I learned that molds do not equal toxins. That floors me, I guess. I always thought they were connected, you know, learning here. James, Dr. Coomer, could you give me, like, could you give a snapshot of how you help Mike's imaginary farm identify toxins? then, like, and then could you give a whole, how should Agri-King, like, identify or be aware of the toxins that they have? Like, how would you explain what you do and how can we at Agri-King help them, I guess?

James Coomer (22:48)
What we're doing already is great. We encourage our region area people who are out there face to face with the producers, go to the farm, particularly if they're seeing issues on the farm that are unexplained. Encourage them to pull samples, send them into the lab, let's test for them. Once we test for them, we get results. Then we can formulate a solution for their problem, whether they've got high toxins in one part of their feeding program or another.

Like I said, we may be working with them to reduce feeding one feed stuff for another or maybe as we come up with the right solution of the AKMC or a clay product to put in there. And some of these products can be used together to make the best solution for a particular farm.

Chris (23:57)
Thank you Dr. Coomer and thank you Mike. Thank you so much for listening to AK Podcasts and hit us up on any of our socials at Agri-King and from everybody here at Agri-King thank you so much for listening. If you have any thoughts or questions that you'd like us to answer please hit us up at podcast@agriking.com. Thank you guys and have a great day.

Mike (24:22)
Thank you, Chris, and thank you, Dr. Coomer.

James Coomer (24:24)
Thank you Chris and Mike.