Strategies for managing mycotoxins and gut microbiota to improve poultry health and productivity

SUMMARYMycotoxin contamination poses a significant threat to the poultry industry, with approximately 81% of feed samples worldwide testing positive for mycotoxins. This issue results in an estimated economic loss of US$2 to 3 billion annually due to reduced growth performance, poor feed conversion efficiency, and increased mortality rates. This review examines the mutual relationship between mycotoxins and the gut microbiota in poultry, showing how key mycotoxins, such as aflatoxins, ochratoxins, fumonisins, zearalenone, and trichothecenes alter intestinal microbial communities. It also addresses how particular microbial strains degrade or bind such toxins through their enzymes. The resulting dysbiosis, which is caused by these toxins, eliminates the beneficial bacteria, Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium species and strains of Bacillus, possess significant detoxification ability by enzymatic degradation and biosorption. Although increasing evidence on mycotoxin–microbiota interactions exists, the majority of previous reviews have treated mycotoxin toxicology and gut microbiome modulation as separate topics, leaving the bidirectional crosstalk between specific mycotoxin classes and poultry microbiota mostly unexplored. This review presents a synthesis of the mycotoxin-specific patterns of dysbiosis, the microbiota-detoxification processes and the microbiome-based mitigation of mycotoxins into a cohesive framework. Collectively, these results point to the promise of precision microbiome-based interventions as sustainable reduction measures in poultry production in terms of losses related to mycotoxins.