Aflatoxin?

[animalmom]

Our goats recently discovered they like corn, along with anything else they can get between their lips. So my loving husband bought a 50 lb bag of deer corn thinking he was doing something really nice for the girls who put milk and cheese on our table.

The label for the deer corn stated "This product contain less than 50 ppb aflatoxin. To be fed to wildlife. WARNING: May not be fed to lactating dairy cattle. Not for human use."

I understand the human use part and have not opened the bag.

We found on the internet that immature animals are inclined to get liver damage because of aflatoxin, but 20 ppb is suppose to be safe. We saw on another site that all grain has some aflatoxin; it is just a matter of how much.

Do any of you have any usable information on aflatoxin such as if the ppb is X then it is ok for adult animals, or no amount of the stuff is ok for any living creatures, or somewhere in between?

Thanks.

 

[SDGsoap&dairy]

We've never fed ours straight corn but I'm interested to hear folks' replies.

 

[ksalvagno]

Goats really shouldn't get much corn but I have no idea about the deer corn. Hopefully someone else will have an answer for you.

 

[Renegade]

If they were mine I would not feed it to them.
I good friend of mine was trying to stretch his feed a little and added some corn to his goat ration. He lost 3 show goats over a 5 day period. His vet told him he thought the corn had some mold in it. This was bagged corn that looked fresh and was not dusty.
I'm not trying to say this is something that happens all the time. Just want to make you aware of what can happen.
Deer corn is pretty much the waste corn. It's the stuff they can't sell for livestock.

Donna

 

[aggieterpkatie]

If it says don't feed to dairy cattle, I sure as heck wouldn't feed it to dairy goats.

 

[cmjust0]

I know someone who lost a goat to "acute rumenitis" and it was discovered that one of it's stomachs was full of straight corn.. Feeding straight corn lowers the pH of the gut, which leads to acidosis, which leads to rumenitis, which leads to DEATH.

Corn's also chock full of phosphorus and contains very little calcium...that's a recipe for urinary calculi, if you have males.

I know another person who was 'amending' feed with cracked corn and lost something like 21 market-age wethers to urinary calculi.

For the most part, corn = bad. Don't feed it.