Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by several fungi, more specifically those of the genera Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium. They were discovered in the early 1960s, when more than 100,000 young turkeys died in the United Kingdom from an apparently new disease, which was named "turkey × disease". The toxin-producing fungus was identified as A. flavus and the toxin was given the ...

Forages are a necessary component of diets for lactating dairy cows because they provide coarse fiber needed to optimize rumen function. However, forages alone provide insufficient nutrients to achieve high milk yield and they must be supplemented with other feed ingredients. Because forage quality is highly variable, their quality must be assessed before diets are formulated. Forages have been...

The majority of ruminant livestock production occurs in temperate grasslands where animals are allowed to graze or are fed harvested forages (i.e., hays or silages). As a result, forages comprise 50 to 90% of total feed consumed by ruminants during their production cycle (Reid and Jung, 1982). In the U.S., beef cattle production is often viewed as an intensive enterprise because of finishing ca...

There is a tendency to consider forages largely in terms of their energy value or TDN. However, the feeding value of forage is actually a more complex function of its nutrient composition, chemical-physical characteristics of its fiber, acceptability (palatability), and associative interactions it might have with other dietary ingredients. Because forages are not usually cost-competitive with c...

Forage is all food ingredients derived from plants, in the form of leaves, sometimes including stems, twigs, and flowers. Included are grasses, legumes other plants. All can be fed for ruminants two forms, i.e. fresh dry forage. Forages contain almost substances animals need. The urgency forage becomes a crucial point increasing livestock productivity. success business depends on its feed manag...

and < 50 ppb T-2. The data suggest that in piglets exposed to weaning stress and a natural infection with HPS, DON levels as low as 220 ppb can decrease performance. From day 15-20, all piglets were treated with Vital TSS (Trimethoprimum, Sufathiazolum and Sulfidimidinum). This treatment effectively controlled the HPS infection. During this trial phase no differences in performance were recorde...

Ruminal solubility of N, K, P, Ca, Mg and S were measured for three forages at six growth stages. The three forages were Kentucky 31 tall fescue (TF), Kenhy fescue (KN) and a red clover-tall fescue mixture (RC). Disappearance parameters were measured by means of the dacron bag technique using cannulated steers. Exposures were for 48 h; maximum extent of disappearance for all elements occurred b...

Alternative forages can be used to provide valuable home-grown feed for ruminant livestock. Utilising these different forages could affect the manure value and the implications of incorporating these forages into farming systems, needs to be better understood. An experiment tested the hypothesis that applying slurries from ruminants, fed ensiled red clover (Trifolium pratense), lucerne (Medicag...

Forage availability is sometimes limited because of poor growing conditions or because of insufficient land base on individual farms. In addition, forage fiber can limit feed intake, particularly for high producing cows, and forage quality is highly variable. Therefore, there is continual interest in alternatives to forages in diets for dairy cows. Decreasing the forage content of diets require...

Selenium (Se), an essential nutrient for animals and humans, occurs as selenoproteins in enzymes. It is very important in animal nutrition because it functions as an anti-oxidant assisted by vitamin E. Se deficiency is a major problem which can be reduced or prevented by supplementation with inorganic or organic sources of Se. However, excessive supplementation and consumption of Se accumulatin...