61 Nutritive feed ingredients that pose toxicological potential

Abstract

Abstract A variety of different substances can promote adverse effects on livestock and companion animals, varying from a decrease in overall growth, to frank toxicological response and death. Many substances that are the cause of adverse effects are either components in feed, part of the forage landscape for grazing animals, or even a part of the nutritive feed composition for pets. It has been well-known that vitamin D intake increases bone mineralization, but methionine consumption may also positively impact bone density. Excess consumption of other nutrients may lead to adverse effects, as current research found that excess tryptophan consumption in weaned pigs adversely affects intestinal morphology and tight junction proteins in other species. However, some studies have found that different animals can have opposing effects from consuming the same substances. For example, a study in mice has found that consumption of chitosan impairs intestinal barrier integrity, while twice the intake by weaned piglets improved the average daily gain. This presentation will discuss examples of nutrients and other substances that may adversely impact the growth and reproductive capacity of companion animals and livestock, underscoring the need for the completion of safety studies of potentially new ingredients to evaluate their long-term use in commercial feed formulations.