A. C. Gutleb, F. Caloni, F. Giraud, C. Cortinovis, F. Pizzo, L. Hoffmann, T. Bohn, and M. Pasquali
Toxicology Reports, vol. 2, pp. 275-279, 2015
Soy products are a main component of animal feed. Because mycotoxins may harm farm animals, undermining productivity and health, a mycological and toxigenic screening was carried out on 36 batches used in animal feed, collected in 2008, 2009 and 2010 in Italy. The investigated mycoflora of a subset of soy seed (<em>n</em> = 6) suggested that <em>Aspergillus</em> spp. and <em>Fusarium</em> spp. frequently colonize soy seeds. Aflatoxins, fumonisins and deoxynivalenol were detected in 88.9%, 72.2% and 30.6% of samples, respectively. Co-occurrence of at least two toxins was observed in 72% of cases. The molecular analysis of the <em>Fusarium</em> spp. population identified <em>Fusarium verticillioides</em> as potential producers of fumonisins, but no known deoxynivalenol producers were detected. It is suggested that the widespread presence of toxins can be due to non-optimal storing conditions of the feed. Moreover, our results suggest that mycotoxin thresholds should be adapted to consider the frequent case of toxin co-occurrence. This approach would better reflect the real toxigenic risk of feedstuffs.