ADISSEO Brazil 2019: Survey of mycotoxins in maize
The term “mycotoxins” defines secondary fungal metabolites that cause biochemical, physiologic, and/or pathologic changes in other species, which include vertebrates, other animal groups, plants, and microbes. Mycotoxins have low molecular weight molecules (Mw <700) and are toxic in low concentrations (Haschek & Voss, 2013). Even though hundreds of compounds have been isolated and chemically characterized as mycotoxins, only approximately 50 have been studied in detail (CAST, 2003).
The 2019 Adisseo mycotoxin survey included maize samples from across Brazil. Number of analyzed samples is defined as “n”. The survey provided insight into the incidence of aflatoxin B1 (AfB1); n=959, zearalenone (ZEN); n=281, deoxynivalenol (DON); n=305, T-2 toxin; n=210, HT-2 toxin; n=196, fumonisin B1 (FB1); n=325, fumonisin B2 (FB2); n=324 and ochratoxin A (OTA); n=181. The maize samples were collected directly from farms or animal feed production sites. Sample providers were advised to follow the principles of good sampling (Richard, 2000). Analytical personnel and laboratory staff were not involved and therefore did not influence the sampling process at any stage. All 8 mycotoxins were analyzed by liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC MS/MS) in LAMIC, Brazil. For the purpose of data analysis, non-detection levels were based on the limits of quantification (LOQ) of the test method for each mycotoxin: AfB1 <1 μg/kg; ZEN <20 μg/kg; DON <200 μg/kg; FB1 <125 μg/kg; FB2 <125 μg/kg; OTA <2,5 μg/kg; T-2 toxin <100 μg/kg and HT-2 toxin <100 μg/kg.
By Radka Borutova, Adisseo