Check out what is new in Mycotoxins
Find the best technical articles, forums, and videos on Mycotoxins at Engormix. Enter now and interact with the world's largest agricultural social network.
1. Introduction Mycotoxins are toxic chemically diverse secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi. Their structural diversity can give rise to several adverse effects in humans and animals, such as carcinogenicity, immunosuppression, teratogenicity, nephrotoxicity, and hepatotoxicity [1]. The contamination of food and feed supply with low levels of mycotoxins is widespread, and includes commodities such as wine, apple juice, cereals, milk, coffee beans, maize, nuts,...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
1. Introduction The basic leucine zipper (bZIP) transcription factors are highly conserved in eukaryotes, and play critical roles in stress response pathways. These proteins are able to form homodimers or heterodimers, and bind specific DNA sequences to regulate the expression of genes involved in cellular responses to oxidative stress. For example, the evolutionarily conserved bZIP protein, Nrf2, is known to form heterodimers with ATF4 or MAF, and bind to antioxidant response...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
1. Introduction Many species of filamentous fungi have the ability to produce toxic secondary metabolites known as mycotoxins. The term mycotoxin is used only for toxic substances produced by fungi related to food products and animal feed; it does not include toxins produced by mushrooms [1]. Today, about 400 structurally different mycotoxins have been discovered and divided into the following main groups: (i) aflatoxins produced by Aspergillus species and ochratoxins produced...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
1. Introduction Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)—one of the most commercially significant cereals worldwide—is grown in certain regions of Africa and in the highlands of Asia and Latin America, where the grain is usually consumed for human nutrition. In Europe, barley is used for animal feed and in the preparation of alcoholic beverages such as beer and whisky. In Argentina, the grain’s main destination is likewise the brewing industry, although the use of barley...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
1. Introduction The economic losses caused by mycotoxins are mostly related to the extra costs employed to reduce or eliminate mycotoxin contamination in the diet, and the financial losses due to suboptimal animal production (Magnoli et al., 2019). Among the mycotoxins affecting livestock production, the Fusarium mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) appears as one of the most important ones. The knowledge regarding the effects of DON on broilers is mostly based on studies using...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 3
1. Introduction Mycotoxins are secondary fungal metabolites that are harmful to animals and humans [1]. Monogastric animals are considered to be more susceptible to the toxic effects of mycotoxins than ruminants as the rumen microbiota are capable to degrade some of those toxic molecules to less toxic metabolites [2–4]. In addition, intrinsic rumen fluid factors, such as bacterial and yeast cell walls and feed particles, can deactivate mycotoxins (e.g., aflatoxins and...
Comments : 1
Recommendations: 1
Introduction Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites of low molecular weights produced by certain strains of filamentous fungi such as Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium, which invade crops in the field and may grow on foods during storage under favaourable conditions of temperature and humidity. The most common mycotoxins are aflatoxins, fumonisins, ochratoxin A, trichothecenes, zearalenone, and out of which aflatoxins (AF) commonly contaminate a wide variety of tropical and...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
1. Introduction The warm and humid climate conditions of sub-Saharan Africa promote the growth of fungi and associated production of mycotoxins. Approximately 25% of grains harvested annually worldwide contain mycotoxins. Ingestion of these contaminated foods can lead to disease and death [1]. Aflatoxin is the most prevalent and harmful human mycotoxin reported to date [2]. Aflatoxins are common food contaminants produced as secondary metabolites of fungi belonging to...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
1. Introduction Mycotoxins are produced by molds under specific conditions, such as high humidity, poor agricultural practices, or damaged and contaminated crops. Although the presence of molds on grains does not necessarily mean there are mycotoxins present, the potential for mycotoxin production does exist. Further, the long-term absence of molds on stored food and feed does not guarantee that the grain is free of mycotoxins [1,2]. The issue of mycotoxin risk is therefore...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
INTRODUCTION Poultry farming has metamorphosed into an organized industry in recent past and registered a rapid growth over last three decades in India. Many problems are continuously challenging against successful poultry farming operations and the common one is threat of mycotoxicosis in poultry. Aflatoxins (AF) have been demonstrated to be carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic and toxic. Surveillance of AFB 1 content of poultry feedstuffs in U.P., India by Johri et...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
INTRODUCTION Aflatoxin is the common name for a group of chemically related compounds (Moss, 1996) produced by certain strains of Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus in the feedstuffs as poisonous secondary metabolites. Aflatoxins are stable once formed in grain and are not degraded during normal milling and storage process (Brown, 1996) and have been demonstrated to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic (Cole and Cox, 1981). It impairs humoral and cellular immune...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Ochratoxin A (OTA) is a mycotoxin produced mainly by Aspergillus ochraceus and Penicillium verrucosum. The family of ochratoxins consists of 3 members, viz. ochratoxin A, B and C but ochratoxin A is the most toxic one (Chang et al. 1979). They are the second major group of mycotoxins characterized after the discovery of aflatoxins. OTA is an isocumarin derivative linked through the carboxy group to a L-β-phenylalanine (Engelhardt et al. 1999). Ochratoxin A is a natural contaminant of...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
The presence of ochratoxin A in poultry feed causes significantly to health disorders and decreases production. In a survey conducted to investigate global occurrence of mycotoxins, the incidence of OTA in South Asia was found to be 55% on analyzing the feed samples (Nahrer and Kovalsky 2014). Ochratoxin A causes significant losses and reduction in the profitability of poultry industry due to its effects on performance and health (Agawane and Lonkar 2004). It causes a reduction in productive...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
1. Introduction Maize (Zea mays L.) is a monoecious plant of the Poaceae family, and it is cultivated worldwide. Two phases can be distinguished during its growth—vegetative and reproductive. The vegetative phase begins with the growth of the plant and culminates with the appearance of the male flower. The reproductive phase begins with the emergence of the female flower, and the physiological maturity of the cob takes place in this stage [1]. Maize is one of the most...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
1. Introduction Mycotoxins are among the microbial toxins of most concern to public health, and they represent a barrier to a wider international trade of agri-food products and an important obstacle in the face of the harmonization of regulatory standards globally, as was discussed earlier [1]. They are produced by various mould species as low-molecular-weight non-immunogenic secondary metabolites whose occurrence has been reported in virtually all foods and feeds...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
1. Introduction The Capsicum genus, which includes more than 30 species of flowering pepper plants, belongs to one of the most important families known as Solanaceae. Although developed countries continue to be the main producers of pepper crops, its cultivation provides an important source of income for small producers in many developing countries. Pepper is one of the most important vegetable crops contributing to significant foreign exchange earnings in Sub-Saharan Africa...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
INTRODUCTION Previous studies (Widmer e al., 2008; Kim et al., 2009; Jacela et al., 2010) have measured metabolizable energy (ME) and standardized ileal digestible (SID) amino acid (AA) content in high-protein distillers dried grains (HP-DDG) produced using the old front-end fractionation processes, and these data were used in developing nutrient composition tables in NRC (2012). These nutritional composition values appeared to be accurate for previous HP-DDG sources because...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
Preventive public health measures to cope with non-communicable and infectious diseases include improving immunity through better nutrition. Immune dysfunction is regarded as both a cause and a consequence of malnutrition. Malnutrition is a daily killer in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), and evidence suggests that susceptibility to and severity of infections increases with malnutrition, leading to illness and death. Undernutrition interacts with repeated bouts of infectious...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 1
1. Introduction Mycotoxins are low-molecular-weight secondary metabolites produced by filamentous fungi. The word mycotoxin is derived from the Greek radicals “mykes” and “toxicum”, meaning fungus and toxin, respectively. This term was coined after a veterinary outbreak in England in 1962, when approximately 100,000 turkey poultry died from the ingestion of aflatoxin-contaminated peanut meal [1]. Since then, mycotoxins have become an important issue in...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
1. Introduction Deoxynivalenol (DON), commonly known as vomitoxin, is a potent mycotoxin produced by the fungus Fusarium graminearum, and its presence in wheat, corn, and barley crops can lead to them being downgraded to livestock feed grade. Pigs, and in particular young piglets, are poorly tolerant to DON contamination. Although extremely high doses of contamination in feed (20 mg/kg feed) will induce vomiting [1,2], swine will tolerate lower-level feed contamination to...
Comments : 0
Recommendations: 0
