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• Streit, E
• Schatzmayr, G
• Tassis, P
• Tzika, E
• Marin, D
• Taranu, I
• Tabuc, C
• Nicolau, A
• Aprodu, I
• Puel, O
• Oswald, I
• [+] on Google Scholar
• Streit, E
• Schatzmayr, G
• Tassis, P
• Tzika, E
• Marin, D
• Taranu, I
• Tabuc, C
• Nicolau, A
• Aprodu, I
• Puel, O
• Oswald, I
• [+] on PubMed
• Streit, E
• Schatzmayr, G
• Tassis, P
• Tzika, E
• Marin, D
• Taranu, I
• Tabuc, C
• Nicolau, A
• Aprodu, I
• Puel, O
• Oswald, I

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Toxins 2012, 4(10), 788-809; doi:10.3390/toxins4100788

Review

Current Situation of Mycotoxin Contamination and Co-occurrence in Animal Feed—Focus on Europe

Elisabeth Streit ¹ , Gerd Schatzmayr ^1,* , Panagiotis Tassis ² , Eleni Tzika ² , Daniela Marin ³ , Ionelia Taranu ³ , Cristina Tabuc ³ , Anca Nicolau ⁴ , Iuliana Aprodu ⁴ , Olivier Puel ⁵  and Isabelle P. Oswald ^5,6

¹ BIOMIN Research Center, Technopark 1, 3430 Tulln, Austria ² Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, St Voutyra 11, 54627 Thessaloniki, Greece ³ National Institute for Research and Development in Animal Biology and Nutrition (IBNA), Calea Bucuresti, 077015 Balotesti, Romania ⁴ “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati, Domneasca 47, 800008 Galati, Romania ⁵ Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), UMR1331, Toxalim, Research Centre in Food Toxicology, 180 chemin de tournefeuille, F- 31027 Toulouse cedex 3, France ⁶ Université de Toulouse, INP, UMR1331, Toxalim, F- 31000 Toulouse, France

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 1 August 2012; in revised form: 13 September 2012 / Accepted: 14 September 2012 / Published: 1 October 2012

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Mycotoxins in Food and Feed)

Download PDF Full-Text [218 KB, uploaded 1 October 2012 12:03 CEST]

Abstract: Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi especially those belonging to the genus Aspergillus, Penicillum and Fusarium. Mycotoxin contamination can occur in all agricultural commodities in the field and/or during storage, if conditions are favourable to fungal growth. Regarding animal feed, five mycotoxins (aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol, zearalenone, fumonisins and ochratoxin A) are covered by EU legislation (regulation or recommendation). Transgressions of these limits are rarely observed in official monitoring programs. However, low level contamination by Fusarium toxins is very common (e.g., deoxynivalenol (DON) is typically found in more than 50% of the samples) and co-contamination is frequently observed. Multi-mycotoxin studies reported 75%–100% of the samples to contain more than one mycotoxin which could impact animal health at already low doses. Co-occurrence of mycotoxins is likely to arise for at least three different reasons (i) most fungi are able to simultaneously produce a number of mycotoxins, (ii) commodities can be contaminated by several fungi, and (iii) completed feed is made from various commodities. In the present paper, we reviewed the data published since 2004 concerning the contamination of animal feed with single or combinations of mycotoxins and highlighted the occurrence of these co-contaminations.

Keywords: mycotoxins; feed; co-occurrence; Europe; aflatoxin; deoxynivalenol; zearalenone; fumonisins; ochratoxin A; T-2

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