Effects of Mycotoxin Sequestering Agents Added Into Feed on Health, Reproduction and Milk Yield of Dairy Cattle

Abstract

Effects of mycotoxin sequestering agents in feed on health, reproduction and milk yield of dairy cattle were studied in a 5-month long experiment on 300 dairy cows divided into two groups and six subgroups. The experiment was conducted in adding a mycotoxin sequestering agent based on 1,3 and 1,6 β-glucans to standard cattle nutrition (TMR), which was regularly tested for content of important mycotoxins, in order to gain knowledge about possible positive effect of this agent on the health of dairy cattle and about possible avoidance of negative effects of mycotoxins on dairy cattle due to their structural elimination caused by the agent. The experiment’s setting and conditions during it were in all aspects common and comparable within the European Union, the experiment’s results should be therefore seen as relevant. Health, pregnancy rate and milk yield were carefully monitored during the experiment. Indicators of state of health (occurrence of mastitis and somatic cell count in milk) did not show any significant differences between test and control groups of dairy cows. The average milk yield of dairy cows which were fed the agent enriched feed (30.2 kg a day) was slightly lower in comparison to control groups (31 kg a day, both results with P < 0.001), however, fat content of milk of test groups’ cows (4.02%) was considerably higher than that of control groups’ cows (3.79%). The average pregnancy rate of cows which were fed the agent enriched feed also manifested considerable increase in percentage and stability (from 42.95% of control groups’ cows to 62.25% of test groups’ cows, the standard deviation decreased from 21.1% to 14.4% which means smaller differences among pregnancy rate of test groups’ cows, hence higher stability), this increase manifested even long after the cows had been fed regular feed again.