Wheat and rye screenings heavily contaminated with ergot (400 to 500 ppm) were subjected to either steam explosion (200 psi) or pelleting to evaluate the impact on toxicity. Total ergot content decreased 40 to 60% with processing, with a greater decrease associated with more drastic processing (steam explosion). Results also indicated that not all the ergot alkaloids are affected similarly by processing. However when these screenings were included in diets (0 to 4 ppm ergot) for weanling pigs growth and feed intake were linearly reduced in the first week with increasing ergot, but only when the ergot was unprocessed, indicating that the processing (steam explosion) did indeed reduce toxicity.
Feed processing to reduce ergot toxicity (full article)
