Review article: Recent advances in enzyme technologies for mitigating mycotoxin contamination in poultry feed

Poultry feed is frequently contaminated with mycotoxins such as deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, fumonisins, aflatoxins, and ochratoxin A. As mycotoxins cause a variety of adverse effects, strategies to counteract the exposure of animals to these contaminants are urgently needed. The development of mycotoxin-inactivating feed enzymes shows great promise for mycotoxin risk management. In contrast to mycotoxin binders that are often applied as feed additives but known to effectively adsorb only some of the most prevalent mycotoxins (most notably aflatoxins), mycotoxin-inactivating enzymes can be tailor-made to specifically target each mycotoxin of concern. The development of mycotoxin-inactivating feed enzymes often starts with mining the natural diversity of enzymes that evolved in bacteria, fungi, plants, and animals. Promising enzyme candidates that lend themselves to biotechnological development are improved by enzyme engineering, formulated as feed additives, and rigorously tested in poultry feeding trials. Following this path, two feed enzymes were recently developed for inactivation of fumonisins and zearalenone in poultry, namely fumonisin esterase FumD (FUM zyme ®) and zearalenone lactonase ZenA (ZEN zyme ®). Upon ingestion, these enzymes effectively degrade their target mycotoxins to compounds of significantly reduced toxicity in the gastrointestinal tract of poultry. These successful developments highlight the great potential of mycotoxin-degrading feed enzymes.