Use of Yeast Cell Wall Extract for Growing Pigs Consuming Feed Contaminated with Mycotoxins below or above Regulatory Guidelines: A Meta-Analysis with Meta-Regression.

Using a random-effects meta-analysis, the performance of growing pigs under a mycotoxin challenge (MT) with or without supplementation of yeast cell wall extract (YCWE, Mycosorb, Alltech Inc.) was evaluated. Both MT and YCWE were also compared to animal controls not receiving mycotoxins (CTRL). Meta-regression was used to further explore the impacts of MT at/below (category 1) or above (category 2) global regulatory guidelines. Following the screening, 23 suitable references (30 mycotoxin treatments) were used. Overall, MT lowered average daily gain (ADG, < 0.001) and average daily feed intake (ADFI, < 0.0001) from CTRL by -84 and -165 g, respectively. Inclusion of YCWE during mycotoxin challenges (YCWE+MT, average 2.1 kg/ton) tended to result in greater ADG (+17 g, = 0.068) compared to MT treatments. The gain-to-feed ratio (G:F) was not impacted by MT or YCWE+MT. Further investigation by meta-regression revealed that pigs fed MT in category 1 had lower ADG (-78.5 g, < 0.001) versus CTRL, while YCWE+MT had higher ADG (+48 g, < 0.001) over MT and was similar to CTRL. The ADFI was not impacted, although YCWE+MT had ADFI values similar to the CTRL. In category 2, ADG and ADFI of pigs fed MT were lower than CTRL (-85.1 and -166 g, respectively, < 0.0001), with a tendency for YCWE+MT to result in higher ADFI (+25.3 g, = 0.062). In summary, the inclusion of YCWE provided benefits to performance during common mycotoxin challenge levels (at or below regulatory guidelines).