Metabolism and Nutrition–nutrition Ii the Effect of Four Different Feeding Programs from Rearing Period to Sexual Maturity on Protein Turnover in Broiler Breeder

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by fungi on almost all agricultural crops. Mycotoxin contamination of crops may cause economic losses at all levels of food and feed production. Mycotoxins are known to be either carcinogenic (e.g., aflatoxins, fumonisins), dermatotoxic (deoxynivalenol), neurotoxic (fumonisins), estrogenic (zearalenone) or immunosuppressive (aflatoxins, deoxynivalenol). Hence it is imperative to assess the presence of these mycotoxins in feed and feed ingredients. A total of 3,227 feed and feed ingredients, such as corn, soybean, et cetera, collected from North and South America were analyzed for mycotoxins over a 5 year period from 2009 to 2013. The mycotoxins analyzed were aflatoxins, fumonisins (FUM), deoxynivalenol (DON) and zearalenone (ZEN). Over 90% of the samples were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) while the rest were analyzed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Corn samples comprised 61% of the total samples, while finished feed samples accounted for 26%, soybean at 6% and dried distillers’ grains with solubles at 3%. Of all the samples tested, 74% returned positive for mycotoxins including 33% which tested positive for more than one mycotoxin. Majority of the samples (68%) had FUM contamination, followed by 42% for DON, 36% for ZEN and 21% for aflatoxins. Prevalence of aflatoxins was reduced to 19% during 2010–13, in comparison to the values in 2009 (38%). Contamination levels of FUM continued to persist during the sampling years, although the levels were relatively higher (81%) in 2009. Lower contamination levels of ZEN were observed from 2011 to 13 (23%) in comparison to 2009–10 (49%). Except for 2010, DON contamination was consistent at around 35%, while the average of positive samples for DON was high at 1,229 ppb. Overall, the contamination levels are of FUM and DON are still high, indicating the wider presence of mycotoxins in animal feed and feed ingredients. Furthermore, the co-occurrence of more than one mycotoxin in 1,066 samples (33%) pose a greater risk of additive and synergistic toxic effects of multiple mycotoxins even though they were present in lower concentrations.