The role of wastewater treatment in reducing pollution of surface waters with zearalenone.

Zearalenone (ZEA) is a mycotoxin produced by some Fusarium species in food and feed. The toxicity of ZEA and its metabolites is related to the chemical structure of the mycotoxin, which is similar to naturally occurring oestrogens. Currently, there is increasing awareness of the presence of fungi and their toxic metabolites in the aquatic environment. One of the sources of these compounds are the effluents from wastewater treatment plants. The average annual efficiency of zearalenone reduction in the Łęczyca plant in our three-year study was in the range from 51.35 to 69.70 %. The threeway analysis of variance (year, month, and kind of wastewater) shows that the main effects of all factors and all interactions between them were significant for zearalenone and dissolved organic carbon content. Our findings suggest that wastewater is not the main source of surface water pollution with zearalenone. Future research should investigate the means to reduce ZEA and its migration from the fields through prevention strategies such as breeding for crops, plant debris management (crop rotation, tillage), and/or chemical and biological control.