Mycotoxicosis and its control in poultry: A review

Accepted: 11/03/2014 Abstract Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by various toxigenic fungi mainly belonging to three genera Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium .Ubiquitous occurrence, heat stability and lipophilic nature pose serious threats in terms of toxic syndromes i.e. mycotoxicoses in animals and poultry. Toxicological spectrum of various mycotoxins is very wide encompassing different kind of toxicities viz. acute and chronic toxicities, carcinogenicity, genotoxicity, immunotoxicity, mutagenicity, and teratogenicity in animals and poultry. Feeds are frequently contaminated simultaneously by several moulds each of which is able to produce several mycotoxins. The synergism occurs naturally between different mycotoxins. The various in vivo and in vitro strategies have been tried to ameliorate/ detoxify/remove the toxic effects of mycotoxins/mycotoxicosis. The physical and chemical methods are impracticable in terms of safeguarding the nutritive quality of food and feed, while the biological methods like use of additives, antioxidant substances and food components; and toxin binding agents are showing promising results in amelioration/ detoxification of mycotoxins/mycotoxicosis in poultry.