Aflatoxin B1 Binding to Sorbents in Bovine Ruminal Fluid

A recent approach to the problem of contamination of agricultural products by aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) is to add non-nutritional adsorbents to animal diets in order to sequester ingested aflatoxins. We conducted in vitro experiments to develop a rapid and cheap model using ruminal fluid to assess the ability of sorbent materials to bind AFB₁. Seven sorbents (hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate; clinoptilolite; zeolite; two types of bentonite; sepiolite; and PHIL 75), commonly added to bovine diets were incubated in water and ruminal fluid in the presence of AFB₁. Hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate, sepiolite and one of the bentonites bound 100% of the AFB₁ in the presence of both ruminal fluid and water; clinoptilolite bound about 80% of AFB₁ in both liquids; whereas the affinities for the mycotoxin of zeolite (50%) and the other sample of bentonite (60%) in water seem to be increased by about 40% in ruminal fluid incubations. PHIL 75 had the poorest binding ability: about 30% in water and 45% in ruminal fluid. In view of the differences in toxin binding in water and ruminal fluid, it is preferable to use the ruminal fluid model for the in vitro pre-screening of sorbent materials potentially useful as adjuvants to ruminant feeds.