Reviewing the book, Mycotoxins Quo Vadis? Why Feed Additives, by Radu Marti and Razvan Mihail Radu-Rusu, Poultry Manager with the Food Animal Initiative (FAI) in Oxford, Mike Colley, writes: "Mycotoxin is one of those words banded about within the farming industry but little is known about them and indeed for me it was a word I learnt 30 years ago and simply understood it as toxins produced by moulds through poor storage of feed.

"This book, 'Mycotoxins Quo Vadis', is a must-read for anyone involved in animal and crop production, it would also be useful for anyone involved in the food industry right through to commercial and domestic catering.

"For the authors, English is clearly not their first language, as it contains words that are very rarely used in the spoken language, so they must be forgiven for that and it’s not such a great distraction once you grasp the meaning behind the text.

"So the content of the book is clearly laid out and for a reader with a basic understanding of chemistry and biology is very digestible. The authors are quite set in their opinions to the point of being political and evangelically averse to organic methods of farming. In fact, I would challenge those passionate about organics to read this book and see if it makes changes to their opinion.

"The book covers several topics around the subject of feed components, additives, antibiotics, and pre-biotics and pro-biotics. Then moving onto the subject of mycotoxins themselves, clearly the authors are very enthusiastic about the dangers of these toxins to the point of being apocalyptic.

"In conclusion, the book is comprehensive and well-padded with information some of which might be considered over technical, but of course the reader can skip these sections if they so desire and concentrate on the basics of the hazards of poor storage, poor crop management and recognising disease that could be attributed to mycotoxins. The disease issue here being key in that one might be misled into thinking poor performance and mortality is down to a viral or bacterial pathogen when in fact, the animals are being poisoned by the feed or the bedding you are giving them.

"I don’t know how much the book is priced at but I would be happy to pay £40 as a reference book. Yes I would say a definite read for students of agriculture and food science," added Mr Colley.

Mycotoxins Quo Vadis? Why Feed Additives? is a new book by Dr Radu Marti (Biomin GmbH, Austria) and Dr Razvan Mihail Radu-Rusu (Assistant Professor at the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Iasi, Romania).

To find out more about the book, Mycotoxins Quo Vadis? Why Feed Additives?, co-written by Dr Marti, click here.