Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by various molds and are among the major contaminants of food and a wide range of agricultural products. These compounds exhibit both acute and chronic toxicities and possess carcinogenic, mutagenic, reproductive, developmental and neurotoxic effects. Different mycotoxins exert differing degrees of harm on livestock and poultry. Preventive treatment of animal feed(e.g. cereals) before or after harvest, or the incorporation of chemical and biological adsorbents into feed, can remove or reduce mycotoxin contamination and thereby mitigate or eliminate their hazards to livestock and poultry. In this paper, the types and characteristics of mycotoxins in feed, their hazards to livestock and poultry, and commonly used mycotoxin detoxification methods applied during the breeding process are summarized.