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July 28, 2005
Grain Containing DON Safe as Cattle, Sheep Feed The rainy weather in June appears to be causing scab to develop in some North Dakota wheat and barley crops. Scab, a disease also called Fusarium head blight, can produce the toxin deoxynivalenol, or DON. At sufficient levels, DON, also known as vomitoxin, can make wheat unacceptable for use in flour milling and pasta production and barley unusable in malt production for beer. However, barley with DON still can be used as a feed for cattle and sheep, according to Greg Lardy, a North Dakota State University Extension Service beef cattle specialist. Research at NDSU’s Carrington Research Extension Center indicates that growing and finishing cattle can be fed rations with DON levels up to 12.6 parts per million (ppm) without adversely affecting feedlot performance or carcass characteristics. Other research at the center didn’t detect any adverse effects from feeding DON-infested barley to gestating and lactating heifers. The heifers were fed barley with 36.8 ppm of DON. They received 8 pounds of the barley per head per day during gestation and 12 pounds of barley per head per day during lactation. Two research trials at the University of Minnesota found that diets for growing and finishing cattle can contain up to 21 ppm of DON without adversely affecting feedlot performance or carcass characteristics. Research at NDSU on gestating and lactating ewes suggests that diets containing up to 25 ppm of DON throughout pregnancy have no effect on weight gain in pregnant ewe lambs. Those diets also did not have an effect on the ewe lambs’ reproductive performance or the lamb crop’s survivability. Scab can invade developing small-grain heads from flowering through kernel development. It develops when long periods of dew or cloudy and foggy weather and temperatures of 70 to 85 degrees all coincide with flowering and early grain fill. The occurrence of scab does not automatically mean DON is present. But in recent years, high levels of scabby kernels in harvested grain also generally meant the crop had high levels of DON. DON can affect flavors in foods and baking quality. It also may make humans and monogastric (single-stomached) animals sick, depending on the levels they consume. The presence of DON in swine feed can cause the pigs to refuse the food. Young swine, especially nursery pigs, are most sensitive to DON. Cattle, sheep and poultry are more tolerant of it. Research indicates that humans would have to consume grain with very high levels of DON before it would pose a health risk. The Food and Drug Administration has guidelines that limit the amount of DON in finished food products to 1 ppm or less. Many food processing companies have lower acceptable limits than the FDA guidelines. ### Source:
Greg Lardy, (701) 231-7660, glardy@ndsuext.nodak.edu |
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North Dakota State University |
