Source: Novindo, “ The Importance of Preventing Biotoxins With Mineral Technology,” Infovet Magazine (Indonesia), October 2021.
Biotoxins are the toxins that damage the gastrointestinal tracts in livestock, often not recognized by producers. Losses due to biotoxins can reach billions of US dollars per year globally. It is necessary to understand clearly what biotoxins are and how to prevent them from causing harm to our farms. On Tuesday, September 28, PT Amlan Perdagangan Internasional with PT Novindo Agritech Hutama held a webinar called “Relaunching of Calibrin-Z: Complete Biotoxin Control” that presented resource persons who are experts in their domain and was moderated by Technical Poultry Executive from PT Novindo Agritech Hutama drh Retno Widiastutik.
The purpose of the webinar was to share a clear understanding of biotoxins and provide appropriate solutions to controlling their presence in the digestive tracts of livestock. Biotoxins are toxins produced by biologic organisms such as fungi, bacteria, and others. Biotoxins produced by pathogenic bacteria can harm the livestock and aquaculture industries, causing losses of more than $10 billion per year globally. These toxins can damage the lining of the intestine and are 100,000 times more dangerous than toxins from fungi. During the webinar, Calibrin-Z was reintroduced with the mineral technology owned by Amlan International as the solution to prevent these losses and support the availability of animal protein which is free from antibiotics.
The event opened with remarks from Amlan International’s vice president of global sales, Fred Kao, who said that Amlan International is committed to supporting and assisting the productivity of the livestock in Indonesia by providing products with mineral technology and Oil-Dri’s experience as the parent company with more than 80 years of experience.
Tony Unandar, a senior poultry practitioner as well as the speaker at the first session of the webinar, explained what are meant by biotoxins and the importance of recognizing the impact of their presence in livestock. “Toxins are not only produced by fungi (mycotoxins) but are also produced by pathogenic bacteria. Many producers are late in detecting the presence of the toxins and sometimes even veterinarians can be ‘fooled’ by this,” said Unandar.
He added that in Indonesia, the minds of producers and veterinarians are fixed on mycotoxins while bacterial toxins still go unnoticed. Regarding bacterial toxins, Unandar explained the difference between endotoxin and exotoxin in more detail.
“This bacterial toxin can be more dangerous; for example, C. perfringens, producing a great number of toxins with necrotizing and hemolytic activity. The alpha-toxin of C. perfringens is the enzyme lechitinase that destroys cell membranes by lecithin hydrolysis. Unfortunately, the existing toxin-binding products generally do not have the capacity to bind these bacterial toxins,” said Unandar.
In the second session, Dr Kim Huang, Ph.D., Regional Technical Service Manager of Amlan International, talked about the material that can bind various types of toxins. “A mineral called calcium montmorillonite, which is activated with technology like Amlan’s, is clinically proven to bind various types of toxins from both fungi and bacteria. This is certainly an innovation in preventing losses caused by biotoxins,” said Huang. Furthermore, he explained that this mineral is a safe material because it does not contain antibiotics and is certainly environmentally friendly.
The event was closed by Joko Raharjo, the commercial director of PT Novindo Agritech Hutama, who conveyed the importance of preventing biotoxins in order to obtain optimal performance in the livestock business — poultry, swine and aquaculture — and that certainly Novindo and Amlan are ready to become business partners with producers and animal feed companies.
