Mycotoxin Binders for a Safe Ruminant-Derived Food Production

Mycotoxins are the harmful secondary metabolites of some toxigenic fungi that gain entry into food through agricultural commodities contaminated with them. Besides, through dietary exposure to potentially contaminated feedstuffs, ruminants could transfer these residues through milk and meat, causing deleterious health consequences among consumers of livestock source foods. Aflatoxin, ochratoxin, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, and fumonisins are the major mycotoxins of concern to ruminant-derived food production that cause a range of health effects leading to sub-optimal zoo-technical performance and farm profitability. This chapter deals with the types of mycotoxins, their adverse effects in ruminants and various mycotoxin ameliorative approaches in brief. Furthermore, a special emphasis has been placed on the roles of mycotoxin adsorbents/deactivators/binders as a feasible strategy to abate mycotoxicosis along with merits and limitations as relevant to ruminant value chain.