OT: Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock

[Guest guest]

Fungal toxins have become ubiquitous in grains. Corn tends to harbor

five major ones: fumonisin, aflatoxin, vomitoxin, zearalenone, and

ochratoxin A. Animals can safely dine on corn tainted with low

concentrations of these. However, with the price of corn booming,

livestock producers can seldom afford to feed their animals corn.

Instead, they're turning to blends of distillery wastes – a dried

mix of high-protein solids and liquids. Toxins in corn don't end up

in the ethanol, but instead concentrate in the distillery wastes,

and at roughly three times the value in the starting kernels, Wu and

Munkvold report.

Ethanol Fallout: Health Risks for Livestock

By Janet RaloffMay 6th, 2008

http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/31799/title/Science_%

2B_the_Public__Ethanol_Fallout_Health_Risks_for_Livestock

Uncle Sam pushing the production of ethanol for fuel, U.S. corn

producers are experiencing an economic bonanza. Not only are they

planting more of the grain than at any time since World War II, but

the price they receive per harvested bushel has also been

skyrocketing. These benefits to growers are proving a juggernaut,

however, for meat producers.

Indeed, many livestock operations are getting hit with a double

whammy. First, they're paying more for each ton of corn-derived

feed. At least as importantly, a new study finds, the corn product

that's they're feeding to their animals can be anticipated to carry

triple the normal load of fungal toxins.

Because those fungal poisons — or mycotoxins — threaten the health

of animals, farmers can look for reduced livestock growth,

especially in swine.

The new analysis conservatively estimates the current cost to U.S.

hog producers from just one of those toxins, fumonisin, at about $9

million a year. But with wider penetration of this feed additive

across species and an accounting for the effects of the other four

toxins, that annual loss could easily and quickly swell into

the " hundreds of millions, or even billions of dollars, " according

to Felicia Wu of the University of Pittsburgh and P. Munkvold

of Iowa State University. They authored the new study.

Fungal toxins have become ubiquitous in grains. Corn tends to harbor

five major ones: fumonisin, aflatoxin, vomitoxin, zearalenone, and

ochratoxin A. Animals can safely dine on corn tainted with low

concentrations of these. However, with the price of corn booming,

livestock producers can seldom afford to feed their animals corn.

Instead, they're turning to blends of distillery wastes – a dried

mix of high-protein solids and liquids. Toxins in corn don't end up

in the ethanol, but instead concentrate in the distillery wastes,

and at roughly three times the value in the starting kernels, Wu and

Munkvold report.

Their new study, due to be published soon in the Journal of

Agricultural and Food Chemistry, bills itself as the " first review

of the potential impact to animal health of mycotoxins in dried

distillers' [wastes]. "

This economic analysis, based on published toxicity data for

livestock, would appear to portend financial adjustments in the corn

and ethanol markets. First, it's likely that greater attention will

be paid to fungal-toxin concentrations in grain, Wu and Munkvold

argue, with routine testing needed to verify that levels in

distillers' wastes don't prove lethal to animals.

Corn prices might fall if some share of harvests can't go for

ethanol use owing to high starting toxin concentrations in the

kernels. In addition, " Ethanol facilities may lose through not being

able to sell [distillery wastes] with excessively high mycotoxin

levels, and/or they may need to pay higher prices for maize that is

relatively clean, " the authors point out. Finally, livestock

producers, " aside from suffering economic losses due to potential

animal health effects, may need to pay higher prices for both high-

quality maize and high-quality [distillery wastes] for animal feed. "

If some distillery wastes end up linked to animal disease or deaths,

the ethanol industry might even encounter a costly " shock event, " Wu

and Munkvold suggest. Lawsuits and " media frenzy " from such an event

could even lead to new regulations.

Ethanol production is relatively expensive – at least for fuel

markets – and most distillers were hoping to recoup big bucks by

selling their wastes, meaning they wouldn't actually prove to be

wastes at all. But ethanol producers can't recycle those byproducts

if they're poisonous. So, here's another pin threatening to burst

the ethanol bubble.

Wu and Munkvold note that there are genetically modified strains of

corn under development that appear especially resistant to fungal

growth. But GM crops aren't popular, for a host of reasons.

What I take home: There's no easy solution to quenching our growing

thirst for liquid fuels. My preference: Engineer cars to sip their

fuels, not guzzle them. There have been technologies available for

years that would allow Detroit – and Japan and Korea and now China –

to produce vehicles that get 80 or more miles per gallon.

I'd advocate increasing the tax on liquid fuels – a strategy I admit

is at odds with at least two of the presidential frontrunners. As

the price of fuel increases, people will suddenly swarm to

dealerships offering high-mileage models. Me among them.

Indeed, I was at Argonne National Laboratory, a year ago, touring

their plug-in-hybrid-vehicle research facility. (As a Prius owner, I

was anxious to see the next-generation technology.) Cars under

development could easily get 200 miles per gallon, I learned. And

depending on how they're driven (ie no more than 30 miles a day

between charges), it might even be possible to fill a car up at

purchase and then never need to visit a gas station again – ever.

Now that's the car for me.

[Guest guest]

believe me, it's going to hurt more than the cows.

>Fungal toxins have become ubiquitous in grains. Corn tends to harbor

> five major ones: fumonisin, aflatoxin, vomitoxin, zearalenone, and

> ochratoxin A.

[Guest guest]

That's why I couldn't continue living in the Midwest where corn is

grown. The funguses, during a certain season, was so thick in the

air- you could cut it with a knife.

This toxins get into most people's homes out there. It had gotten

into our w/w carpeting and thrived-seeing the house was empty for a

year. We all were so sick. Little did I know about all of this being

from the east coast.

llaci