Effectiveness of density segregation and sodium carbonate treatment on the detoxification of Fusarium‐contaminated corn fed to growing pigs

Abstract The effectiveness of using rinsing, density segregation or 0.1 M sodium carbonate treatments of Fusarium ‐contaminated corn containing deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone were tested both chemically and by feeding the material to growing pigs. Uninfected and Fusarium graminearum ‐inoculated corn (containing 40.3 mg DON and 0.94 mg zearalenone kg −1 cor) were subjected to various treatments: no treatment (control), rinsed, rinsed and all floating material removed, soaked in 0.1 M sodium carbonate for 24 h or soaked in 0.1 M sodium carbonate for 24 h after removal of the floating material. All corn samples were analysed for DON and zearalenone. Rinsing the contaminated corn reduced the concentrations of both mycotoxins by 44% while soaking in 0.1 M sodium carbonate reduced the toxin concentrations an additional 35%. In both cases, removal of the floating material decreased concentrations another 8 and 4%, respectively. In the feeding study, 10‐week‐old barrows were fed diets containing 17.5% of the treated corn samples over a 21 day period. Daily feed consumption and weight gains were significantly improved in pigs fed the rinsed‐minus‐floating corn and the sodium carbonate‐soaked corn with and without floating material compared to the untreated contaminated corn. The chemical and biological data demonstrated that rinsing combined with the removal of floating material or soaking in 0.1 M sodium carbonate with or without removal of floating material were effective in reducing the toxicity of the contaminated corn. Due to a higher energy requirement needed to dry the corn soaked in sodium carbonate, the combination of rinsing and removal of the floating material is recommended as a more general and practical method of detoxification of contaminated grain.