Mycotoxicosis – diagnosis, prevention and control: past practices and future perspectives

Abstract

Mycotoxins pose severe health hazards in animals, humans, and poultry birds. More than 400 chemically different mycotoxins have been identified to date. Twenty-five percent of world’s crops are potentially contaminated with mycotoxins. Luckily, nature has provided the ruminants a unique property of inactivating and detoxifying most of the mycotoxins with the help of microflora and microfauna present within their ruminal fluid; however, unfortunately avian species lack such ability putting them at high risk to the deleterious effects of mycotoxins. This review elaborates different strategies for diagnosis, prevention and control of mycotoxins.