SOMERVILLE, Ohio — Vomitoxin is around, and hog producer Jeff Schwab has adjusted for it by increasing the levels of mold inhibitor in his animals’ feed.

Vomitoxin is a mycotoxin caused by a fungus, said Dr. Pierce Paul, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) specialist in corn and small grain diseases. It infects corn and wheat, causing ear rot in corn and head scab in wheat.

“Swine and young animals are particularly sensitive to mycotoxins,” Paul said. “As the name suggests, vomitoxin causes vomiting and may also cause feed refusal and suppression of the immune system; it can cause abortion.”

“We use different kinds of mold inhibitors in our feed,” said Schwab, who has a farrow- to-wean operation. “Since it was such a problem a couple of years ago and we have to deal with reproductive problems; it is a major problem for reproduction.”

For the past couple of years Schwab has been using mold inhibitors in his feed continuously to combat vomitoxin. He increased the levels starting the first of the year because he knew the vomitoxin problem was getting worse.

“A lot of this has side effects from years ago,” Schwab said. “We’ve had problems when our sows farrow; they’re prone to prolapse or eject their uteruses after they give birth and then we lose the animal. Our veterinarian did a lot of research and any female that would have been kept for breeding from the hogs born two years ago that had vomitoxin in the feed, it is still affecting their lives today. Any added stress could cause a problem for them.”

Adding mold inhibitors to feed costs about $10 a ton, Schwab said. That adds up because he feeds 1,000 tons or more a year.

Two years ago when Schwab tested the grain everything looked okay. Then his animals began to show side effects. “Some of this gets worse after you grind the feed and it heats up from grinding,” he said.

Schwab has dealt with vomitoxin two out of the last three years, he said. Early in the year the 2011 crop looked good, but some farmers could not get their corn out of the field until late December or January, and that caused problems. Also, often the good corn is mixed with the bad in the silos at the mill.

“I think a lot of the corn that went into the bins was not in great shape to start with, and when it starts heating up this spring and summer, some of these problems could get worse,” he said.

Cool, wet, weather during and after silking of corn (R1 growth stage) provides optimal conditions for the development of ear rot, said Paul. He agreed with Schwab that toxin levels can increase in storage. Aeration is important to keep the grain cool and dry.

Also, because of the processing that takes place in the manufacture of ethanol, toxin levels can increase threefold during that processing, Paul said. “That is a big concern (when ethanol co-products are fed to animals),” he said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has set advisory guidelines for vomitoxin. In humans it is 1 part per million (ppm) in finished flour; swine, 1 ppm in total diet; ruminants and chickens, 10 ppm in 50 percent of diet and 5 ppm in total diet; and for other animals, 2 ppm in total diet.

“It is always important before feeding grain to have it tested,” Paul said.