A Comprehensive Study on the Occurrence of Mycotoxins and Their Producing Fungi during the Maize Production Cycle in Spain

Abstract

Mycotoxin contamination is one of the main problems affecting corn production, due to its significant risk to human and animal health. The Fusarium and Aspergillus species are the main producers of mycotoxins in maize, infecting both pre-harvest and during storage. In this work, we evaluated the presence of mycotoxins and their producing species along maize production cycles in three different stages (anthesis, harvest, and storage) during three consecutive seasons (2016–2018). Fungal occurrences were studied using species-specific PCR protocols, whereas mycotoxin levels were determined by LC-MS/MS. Fumonisin-producing Fusarium species (F. verticillioides and F. proliferatum), as well as the aflatoxin producer Aspergillus flavus, were the most predominant species at all stages; although, during some seasons, the presence of F. graminearum and A. niger aggregate species were also identified. Contrastingly, fumonisins were the only mycotoxins detected and levels were always under legal regulations. The results presented here demonstrate that even when fungal contamination occurs at the early stages of the maize production cycle, the application of good agricultural and storage practices might be crucial to ensure mycotoxin-free grains.

Occurrence of Fusarium spp. in Maize Grain Harvested in Portugal and Accumulation of Related Mycotoxins during Storage

“…Among Fusarium mycotoxins analyzed on the maize grains, fumonisins were only detected, although toxin T2 (T2), zearalenone (ZEA), and deoxynivalenol (DON) were not found in the samples collected during harvest or during storage of maize grains. Similar results were obtained in maize grains collected from 2016 to 2018 in Spain, where only fumonisins were also detected [ 35 ]. Considering the maize products analyzed in Slovenia, T2 was also absent [ 7 ]; however, DON and Fum B1 were identified in maize grains from India [ 32 ] and Brazil [ 33 ], while in Serbia, Fum B1, Fum B2, ZEA, and DON were quantified in 204 maize samples [ 27 ].…”

“…These results showed a similar distribution of the Fusarium species in the different samples and farms, with F. verticillioides the predominant species isolated in maize, as has been observed worldwide in Spain [35,51], Italy [52] China [31], and India [32], followed by F. subglutinans, while in wheat F. culmorun and F. graminearum are more dominant. The prevalence and distribution of the Fusarium species depends on climatic conditions, agronomic practices, mycobiome, and the susceptibility of the plant [13].…”

“…In addition, mycotoxin contamination of maize grains after harvest have been occurred worldwide and. Have been reported in Spain [ 25 ], South Korea [ 26 ], Republic of Serbia [ 27 ], Slovenia [ 7 ], Croatia [ 28 ], Egypt [ 29 ], Ethiopia [ 30 ], China [ 31 ], India [ 32 ], and Brazil [ 33 ], and two studies have reported the incidence of mycotoxins during storage [ 34 , 35 ]. In Portugal, few studies have mentioned the fungal species prevalence and mycotoxins occurrence in maize grains after harvest [ 36 , 37 ] and no studies have reported their accumulation during storage.…”

Impacto de las aflatoxinas B1/M1 sobre el bienestar de las vacas lecheras y su presencia en productos lácteos

“…A nivel mundial, la incidencia de AFs es baja en ensilados conservadosde forma adecuada; sin embargo, Ogunade et al (2018) describe un rango desde 0hasta 156 μg de AFs/kg de MSen ensilados de maíz, cuya concentración de AFs varía según la región intercontinental y la calidad del maíz para ensilar. Además,el maíz es el cereal con la más alta prevalencia de AFsy el ensilado de maíz u otros alimentos pueden contener una mezcla de micotoxinas (Amigot, Fulgueira, Bottai y Basílico, 2006;Reyes-Velázquez et al, 2008;Biomin, 2019;Borutova, 2019;García-Díaz et al, 2020;Rodríguez-Blanco, Ramos, Sanchis y Marín, 2019b).…”

“…El impacto real de la AFM1 en la salud es muy difícil de estimar debido al efecto múltiple de AFs e interacciones con otras micotoxinas, equivalentes tóxicos u otros agentes con efecto similar que contaminan los alimentos (Dellafiora, Dall'Asta y Galaverna, 2018;Peles et al, 2019;García-Díaz et al, 2020), además la dosis letal de AFs en humanos y animales varía desde 0,02 a 20,0 mg/kg de peso vivo (Benkerroum, 2020). La Agencia Internacional para la Investigación del Cáncerclasifica a la AFM1 como un carcinógeno del grupo 2B (posible carcinógeno para humanos).…”