Annual survey of mycotoxin in feed in 2017-Taiwan

In 2017, 493 randomly collected feed samples of raw materials and feed mills in farms were analyzed. Samples were tested for aflatoxins (B1, B2, G1, and G2), zearalenone, fumonisins (B1, B2, and B3) and deoxynivalenol by the ELISA Mycotoxin analysis kit (Romer Labs®).

Results

Of 493 feed samples collected, 93.9% were contaminated with deoxynivalenol (table 1). All the maximum concentrations of mycotoxin were over the limit of quantification in this survey.

Data on corn meal, nursery, and pregnant diet were conducted to give the prevalence of mycotoxins. Out of total 493 samples, 107 samples from corn meal were analyzed that observed 92.5% of feed were contaminated with deoxynivalenol (table 2).

Of 113 samples of nursery feed collected, 94.7% of samples were contaminated with deoxynivalenol (table 3). The occurrence of mycotoxin in pregnant diet also analyzed. In addition to the highly contamination rate with deoxynivalenol, both Zearalenone and fumonisins were detected more than 60% of all tested samples (table 4).

Presentation and distribution of mycotoxins is related to variation of temperature or humidity, pest biting, the storage condition, and etc. Most of the mycotoxins were developing in the field than in the storage or during mixing. Mycotoxin contaminated feedstuffs will raise the risk to impact animal production and economic profit. Understanding the occurrence of mycotoxins will help to implement solutions to mycotoxin management in farms. The potential synergistic effect of multiple mycotoxin contamination was also predictable from this annual report. According to the reginal report, other than indicating a monitoring procedure, feed manufacturers and animal producers can also be aware of the risk of sourcing raw materials and take the actions of remedy.