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Dangerous Mycotoxins Confirmed in 2015 Grains

This years grain crops have confirmed high (dangerous) levels of aflatoxin, fumonsin, and DON. These grains become future dangers for pet foods containing corn, wheat and or barley.

This years grain crops have confirmed high (dangerous) levels of aflatoxin, fumonsin, and DON. These grains become future dangers for pet foods containing corn, wheat and or barley.

Neogen – a company that sells testing equipment to animal feed/pet food manufacturers to detect levels of mycotoxins, released a report on October 5, 2015 stating many states have confirmed high levels of dangerous mycotoxins.

Confirmed testing has found the following…

Aflatoxin (more than 20 ppb is too high for food and pet food)

Georgia (more than 100 ppb)
Texas (more than 40 ppb)
North Carolina (more than 100 ppb)
South Carolina (more than 20 ppb)
Virginia (more than 100 ppb)
Kansas (more than 40 ppb)

Neogen also reported that confirmed reports of the mycotoxin DON (Deoxynivalenol) has been reported in corn in several states, barley in several states, and wheat in “all major classes of wheat in the US” and also detected in wheat in Canada.

These confirmed reports of mycotoxins in 2015 grains is a concern for pet food. FDA allows the animal feed industry to mix highly contaminated grains with clean grains in an effort to lower the total mycotoxin exposure – allowing farmers a means to sell highly contaminated grains. But…the problem with mycotoxins is proper testing.

Imagine a railroad car or large trailer full of corn (this is how grains are delivered to pet food manufacturing). The mold/mycotoxins are not uniform over all the grain delivery (thousands of pounds in one delivery) – they are in pockets…some sections are clean grain, other sections are contaminated grain. Testing the grain for mycotoxin contamination is encouraged, but finding those ‘pockets’ of highly contaminated grains are basically based on luck. One small test amount of corn is tested in the several thousand pound load. If that one small test amount is tested to be clean, the rest of the load is processed without question…even though their may remain numerous pockets of dangerous mycotoxins remaining.

Pets consuming a food or treat containing those mycotoxin contaminated grains will get sick. The severity can range from (low levels over time) “liver and kidney fibrosis, infections resulting from immonosuppression and cancer” to death if large amounts of mycotoxins are consumed. And worse yet, because the high levels of mycotoxins are often in pockets within the large load of grain, testing the pet food may never show the true cause of the pet illness or death. The food the pet consumed could contain the high level mycotoxin pocket, the remaining food tested may contain clean grain.

If your pet’s food or treat contains corn, wheat or barley – contact the manufacturer and ask what their mycotoxin testing procedure is. Ask them to explain their process to assure grains are clean of mycotoxins before processing. All consumers deserve this information.

 

Wishing you and your pet(s) the best,

Susan Thixton
Pet Food Safety Advocate
Author Buyer Beware, Co-Author Dinner PAWsible
TruthaboutPetFood.com
Association for Truth in Pet Food

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8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. Mitchell Tuckness

    October 15, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    What brands are we talking about being impacted by this? All of them? What exactly is the cause of this toxin? Is it natural or from pesticides or what? How does the grains get contaminated in the first place? More detailed information might help us.

    • Susan Thixton

      October 15, 2015 at 5:28 pm

      Hi Mitchell – any pet food that contains grains could be impacted by this. Weather conditions are the cause to high mycotoxin levels. If you do a search on this site for ‘mycotoxins’ – you can find more information about them.

  2. Debi Cohen

    October 15, 2015 at 6:28 pm

    all about de-population, and this includes the pets.

    • Terri Janson

      October 16, 2015 at 12:58 pm

      This is what my boyfriend always says…I believe him.

  3. Peg

    October 16, 2015 at 10:09 am

    There is also a significant danger to the human who serves the pet food. Scarier as well are any little ones who might come across the pet’s pretty colored food in their

    Cat owners who use wheat or corn litters are getting a double whammy for both their pets and themselves!!

  4. Cheryl Mallon-Bond

    October 16, 2015 at 3:27 pm

    I would assume that is doesn’t really matter what state “we” are all in, because the grains grown in these states that are showing high mycotoxin levels don’t exclusively get used in Only those states, the products are sold nationwide & used in many many different brands I would think. Things just keep getting worse & worse! It is just so disheartening!

  5. Regina

    October 19, 2015 at 6:29 pm

    I saw your comment about the litter so I sent the question to this company and got a nice response

    “Thank you for contacting World’s Best Cat Litter™.

    It would be virtually impossible to experience a scenario where aflatoxins or any other type of mycotoxin/mold would develop in the litter box before or after being exposed to cat waste.

    Our company screens all incoming raw ingredients for mycotoxins and rejects any ingredient prior to entering the plant that tests positive.

    World’s Best Cat Litter™ is manufactured using a proprietary thermal heat process. With our products’ long-term quality history and the ongoing rigorous product testing of both raw materials and finished products, we are confident consumers should have no concerns regarding aflatoxin or any sort of mold issues with our products.

    With common-sense household use, storing in a cool and dry environment, and scooping the clumps daily, you should not encounter any problems with the litter developing molds.

    If you have any additional questions about World’s Best Cat Litter™, please let us know.

    Best regards,”

  6. david

    December 8, 2016 at 8:39 pm

    Abortion could be the problem from the Mycotoxin.

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