Managing Mycotoxin risk in Layers
There are two kinds of layer farmers across the globe. Those who produce their own feed and those who buy from commercial feed millers. i. The challenge of mycotoxins starts with the loss of raw materials. If the farmers are not careful in selecting right quality raw materials, they may lose money at a later stage if such raw materials are deemed unfit to be used in feed manufacturing. ii. The second challenge of mycotoxins is related to loss of health and performance of laying hens. Unlike broiler chickens, commercial layers are reared for a minimum of 70 weeks of age. As a result layers suffer from chronic mycotoxin toxicity even when the amount of mycotoxin is very minimal in the feed. Chronic toxicity is hard to diagnose as classical symptoms may be absent. A close monitoring of layers exposed to chronic mycotoxin toxicity has revealed poor egg production, eggshell quality, litter quality, feather cove