The degradation of organic matter (OM; P < 0.05), neutral detergent fibre (NDF; P < 0.01) and protein (P < 0.001) were increased by administrating the Fusarium contaminated diet which was accompanied by an increased ammonia concentration (P < 0.01) and increased butyrate (P < 0.01), isobutyrate (P < 0.01) and isovalerate (P < 0.05) values of the mycotoxin effluents in relation to the controls.
High proportions of ingested DON of 90 % (85–93 % ) and ingested ZON of 93 % (80–104 % ) were recovered at the pooled feed residues and effluents in form of DON and de-epoxy DON, and ZON and α-ZOL after administering the Fusarium toxin contaminated feed. While adsorption of DON as DON and de-epoxy DON in the feed particles was only minor (5 % ), a higher amount of 38 % of ingested ZON was recovered as ZON and α-ZOL at the feed residues. The total recovery of DON plus de-epoxy DON in effluents as a percentage of DON intake reached 8 % , 9 % and 22 % of ingested DON at 6, 12 and 24 h after application of the contaminated diet the first time, whereby the recovery of de-epoxy DON as percentage of DON intake was only 5 % at 24 h. Concentrations of ZON and metabolites were lower than detection limits in the time dependent effluent samples.