Dried Distiller's Grains with Solubles (DDGS), a by-product of bio-ethanol production from maize and other cereals, is increasingly used as a feed additive. In this study, five Fusarium toxins, including fumonisin B1 (FB1), fumonisin B2 (FB2), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN) and beauvericin (BEA) were quantified by LC-MS/MS in 59 corn-DDGS samples. In addition, the fumonisin level in 30 randomly selected-samples was compared using an ELISA detection technique. No sample was free from mycotoxin contamination, and 50.8 % of the samples were co-contaminated with all five mycotoxins. Moreover, toxin levels were generally high, with mean levels of 9 mg kg(-1) FB1, 6 mg kg(-1) FB2, 1.2 mg kg(-1) DON, 0.9 mg kg(-1) ZEN, and 0.35 mg kg(-1) BEA. Maximum levels for FB1 (143 mg kg(-1)) and FB2 (125 mg kg(-1)) are of acute toxicological relevance. The ELISA method had a tendency to underestimate the fumonisin content when compared with LC-MS/MS. Finally, this is the first reported beauvericin contamination in corn-DDGS.

A reliable and rapid method has been developed for the determination of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) in four kinds of feedstuffs comprising broken rice, peanuts, corn, and fishmeal. A sample preparation was carried out based on the QuEChERS method with the exclusion of the clean-up step. In this study, AFB1 was extracted using acetonitrile/methanol (40/60 v/v), followed by partitioning with sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate. High-performance liquid chromatography with precolumn derivatization and fluorescence detection was performed. The coefficients of determination were greater than 0.9800. Throughout the developed method, the recovery of all feedstuffs achieved a range of 82.50-109.85% with relative standard deviation lower than 11% for all analytes at a concentration of 20-100 ng/g. The limit of detection (LOD) ranged from 0.2 to 1.2 ng/g and limit of quantitation (LOQ) ranged from 0.3 to 1.5 ng/g. The validated method was successfully applied to a total of 120 samples. The occurrence of AFB1 contamination was found at the following concentrations: in broken rice (0.44-2.33ng/g), peanut (3.97-106.26ng/g), corn (0.88-50.29 ng/g), and fishmeal (1.06-10.35 ng/g). These results indicate that the proposed method may be useful for regularly monitoring AFB1 contamination in feedstuffs.

Background and Aim: Mycotoxin contamination in animal feeds is of considerable concern because it can affect animal health systems. As a result of contamination in the food chain, humans can indirectly come into contact with mycotoxins. The present study aimed to present mycotoxin contamination patterns in animal feeds from 2015 to 2020 and elucidate associations between the type of feed and the type of ingredient. Materials and Methods: Data were summarized from the records of the Kamphaeng Saen Veterinary Diagnosis Center from 2015 to 2020, which comprised the analyses of aflatoxin (AFL), zearalenone (ZEA), T-2 toxin (T-2), fumonisin (FUM), and deoxynivalenol (DON) contamination in feed ingredients, complete feeds, and unclassified feeds. Descriptive statistics, Chi-squared tests, and Fisher's exact tests were used for data analysis. Results: ZEA was prevalent in animal feeds. The prevalence of each mycotoxin was constant from 2015 to 2020. Approximately 20-30% of samples were positive for AFL and FUM. The highest contamination was ZEA, which was found in 50% of the samples, and the occurrence of T-2 and DON was <10%. AFL significantly contaminated complete feeds more than feed ingredients. Feed ingredients were related to mycotoxin contaminations. The highest levels of AFL, FUM, and DON contamination occurred in 2017. The data in this year consisted mostly of soybean, corn, and rice bran. Conclusion: The number of positive samples of all five mycotoxins was constant from 2015 to 2020, but the occurrence of ZEA was the highest. Mycotoxins in feedstuffs are significantly related to the type of feed and the type of ingredient.