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. 2022 Aug 14;14(8):552.
doi: 10.3390/toxins14080552.

Mycotoxins in Cattle Feed and Feed Ingredients in Brazil: A Five-Year Survey

Gabriela L Biscoto  1 , Lauranne A Salvato  1 , Érika R Alvarenga  2 , Raul R S Dias  1 , Guilherme R G Pinheiro  1 , Mariana P Rodrigues  1 , Priscila N Pinto  1 , Rossimiriam P Freitas  3 , Kelly M Keller  1
Affiliations

Mycotoxins in Cattle Feed and Feed Ingredients in Brazil: A Five-Year Survey

Gabriela L Biscoto et al. Toxins (Basel). .

Abstract

Mycotoxins are toxic secondary metabolites produced by a variety of fungi, which when ingested can cause several deleterious effects to the health of humans and animals. In this work, the detection and quantification of six major mycotoxins (aflatoxins-AFLA, deoxynivalenol-DON, fumonisins-FUMO, ochratoxin A-OTA, T-2 toxin-T-2 and zearalenone-ZON) in 1749 samples of feed and feed ingredients for cattle, collected in Brazil between 2017 and 2021, was carried out using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In total, 97% of samples were contaminated with at least one mycotoxin, yet, very few samples exceeded the lowest European Union guidance values for cattle, and the estimated daily intake also showed a low risk for the animals. However, co-occurrences were widely observed, as 87% of samples contained two or more mycotoxins at the same time, and the presence of more than one mycotoxin at the same time in feed can lead to interactions. In conclusion, the contamination of feed and feed ingredients for cattle with mycotoxins in Brazil is very common. Hence, the monitoring of these mycotoxins is of significant importance for food safety.

Keywords: ELISA; TMR; aflatoxins; co-occurrences; deoxynivalenol; feed; maize; silages; zearalenone.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Percentage of contaminated and not contaminated samples and median of positive samples for (a) AFLA, (b) DON, (c) FUMO, (d) OTA, (e) T-2 and (f) ZON for each studied year (2017–2021). Numbers above the bars represent the number of analyzed samples each year.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Relative frequency of samples contaminated with zero, one, two, three, four, five or six mycotoxins at the same time. Numbers in parentheses are the total sample number.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Estimated daily intake (EDI) of mycotoxins in TMR for beef cattle (black bars) and dairy cattle (grey bars).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Number of samples per state of origin. The number of analyzed samples for each state are given (n).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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