Occurrence of some mycotoxins (aflatoxin, ochratoxin A, citrinin, zearalenone and vomitoxin) in various Egyptian feeds

Ninety five samples of various Egyptian feedstuffs were investigated for the aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, and G2 means thin layer chromatography (TLC). Out of these samples 44.2% were positive (maize, rice crack, rice germ, rice germ cake, rice bran, wheat bran, cotton seed, cotton seed cake, peanut, and mixed feed for broilers, egg production, calf fattening and milk production). High percentage (90.5%) of the positive samples were contaminated with less than 100 ppb total aflatoxins. Peanut from "Ismailia" showed the highest contamination-mean of 400 ppb aflatoxin B1. The contamination relationship between kernels and shell of the same pods of the peanut was 1:7. The lowest contamination-mean was 5 ppb B1 in soya bean samples. All samples of horse bean and fish meal were negative. Aflatoxin B1 was present alone so frequently (in 76.2% of the positive samples). The relationship between the concentrations of aflatoxins B2:G1:B1 was 1:2.3:22.4. 51 different samples of foods and feeds from various Egyptian regions were collected and investigated for the nephrotoxic mycotoxin ochratoxin A means TLC. Twelve samples (23.5%) from them were designated as positive samples. The positive samples belonged to white maize, wheat, wheat bran, beans, rice germ, rice germ cake, broilers feed, egg production feed, and milk production feed; whereas the yellow maize (hybrid), soya beans, wheat soya meal, rice crack, cotton seed, cotton seed cake, and fish meal samples were negative. The contamination range was from 4 ppb to 577 ppb with an average of 58.2 +/- 22.9 ppb. Half of the positive samples was contaminated with 10-100 ppb whereas 41.7% from the positive samples had less than 10 ppb and 8.3% only had more than 100 ppb. Citrinin is existing in Egyptian food and feedstuffs. Out of 52 different samples--from various Egyptian regions-15.4% were positive. These were rice bran, rice germ, maize (white), wheat bran, cotton seed cake and fish meal. The highest contamination was in fish meal (40-70 ppb) whereas the lowest was in wheat bran (3 ppb). Mean of the contamination level was 25.9 +/- 3.4 ppb with a range of 3-70 ppb. For the first time in the Egyptian foods and feeds will be informed about the presence of the mycotoxin zearalenone with a high concentration. From several Egyptian places, 64 samples were collected (4 samples for each food or feed stuff).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)