Occurrence of mycotoxins in Southern Europe

Contamination of feed materials with mycotoxins is an important issue for farmers, as dietary exposure to these toxins may cause acute or chronic intoxication in animals, resulting in major economic losses. Although prevention methods to avoid mycotoxin contamination on the field prior to harvest, during harvesting or storage have been developed, it is currently not possible to eliminate the risk of a mycotoxin contamination entirely. Here we present a survey over a 4.5 year period that was performed to evaluate the incidence of mycotoxins in feed materials and compounded feed samples originating from Southern European countries, including Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece and Cyprus. The 416 samples received were tested for the most relevant mycotoxins that are found in feed materials, such as aflatoxins, zearalenone (ZEA), type B trichothecenes (deoxynivalenol and acetyldeoxynivalenol), type A trichothecenes (T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin), fumonisins and ochratoxin A (OTA), by two different methods, a commerci...