Reduction of deoxynivalenol contaminating corn silage by short-term ultraviolet irradiation: a pilot study.

We evaluated the effects of short-term (up to 60 min) irradiation of corn silage with ultraviolet (UV) light (intensity: 1.5 mW/cm(2) at 254 nm UV-C wavelength), along with constant stirring of the silage, on the concentration of deoxynivalenol (DON), a major feed-contaminating mycotoxin, and those of α-tocopherol (vitamin E) and β-carotene (pro-vitamin A). The initial DON concentration in artificially contaminated silage was set at approximately 60 µg/g dry silage weight. After irradiation, the level of DON was decreased significantly (P<0.05) by approximately 13 µg/g (22%) on average at 30 min, and by 12 µg/g (21%) at 60 min. However, the concentrations of the vitamins remained relatively unaffected. Although further improvement is needed, short-term UV irradiation seems a promising on-farm method for reducing the level of DON in feedstuffs.