Prevalence of mycotoxins in feedstuffs and feed surveyed worldwide in 2009 and 2010

Abstract

Mycotoxins are becoming an increasingly important topic in both human and animal fields. With the improvement of analytical methods it is possible to identify a great number of known and unknown toxic metabolites. However, even for the most well studied mycotoxins, namely aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, fumonisins and ochratoxin A, several questions remain unanswered. In which commodities are they most commonly found and at which levels? Which worldwide regions are more prone to mycotoxin occurrence and how severe is the contamination? In an attempt to answer these questions, a worldwide mycotoxin survey has been been carried out. A total of 6,058 feedstuffs and finished feed samples were analyzed between January 2009 and December 2010 for the presence of the aforementioned mycotoxins. 1,695 samples were analyzed by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) and 4,363 samples were analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). This paper presents the results of these analyses from a geographical point of view (by world region) and by commodity type, separated by analytical method. The outcome is clear and mycotoxins are reported to be ubiquitously present as 24, 21, 65, 48 and 17% of analyzed samples tested positive for aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, fumonisins and ochratoxin A, respectively in the case of ELISA-analyzed samples and 31, 44, 50, 56 and 27% of HPLC-analyzed samples tested positive for the same mycotoxins.