Nearly three in four animal feed ingredient samples analyzed globally contained at least one mycotoxin, according to Cargill's sweeping 2025 surveillance report. The scale of contamination signals a persistent and industry-wide performance threat.

Cargill Micronutrition & Health Solutions has released its 2025 Global Mycotoxin Report, compiling findings from 389,926 analyses across 41 countries into what ranks among the most extensive mycotoxin surveillance datasets ever assembled. The results confirm that contaminated feed is not an exception but the norm.

Thirty-four percent of samples exceeded the company’s performance-based risk thresholds, levels tied to measurable losses in animal productivity. And the problem rarely arrives in isolation: nearly half of all samples carried three or more contaminants simultaneously, making straightforward mitigation strategies increasingly inadequate.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) leads the threat list, surpassing performance thresholds in 53 percent of analyses. Fumonisins worsened compared to the previous year, zearalenone remained stubbornly elevated across multiple regions, and aflatoxin pressure climbed in parts of Asia.

Clement Soulet

"Producers are not facing isolated toxin events. They are managing multiple and regionalized risk patterns," said Clement Soulet, Category Lead of Anti-Mycotoxin Agents. "Our data shows that performance impact is the real concern."

The species-level data makes that impact tangible: 27 percent of samples exceeded broiler performance thresholds, 26 percent surpassed those for nursery pigs, and 17 percent posed elevated risks for calves and heifers.