ISSUE FOCUS FEED & ADDITIVE MAGAZINE April 2023 43 as well as during storage. Drought conditions and insect damage further increase aflatoxin (AF) contamination in the corn. On the other hand, Penicillium moulds attack corn mainly during improper storage and produce ochratoxins (OTA). IMPORTANCE OF RAPID TESTS FOR MYCOTOXINS IN CORN Rapid mycotoxin analysis at the feed mill is an important quality control step used across the globe to make sure purchased corn is of superior quality. To make informed decisions on accepting or rejecting the raw materials, Selko, the feed additive brand of Nutreco, has deployed Mycomaster (rapid mycotoxin analysis tool) at various feed mills across the globe. These systems automatically send the mycotoxin analysis data to Selko’s central database which can be further used to provide customised mycotoxin interpretation reports as well as sharing global insights on periodic mycotoxin threats to livestock and poultry. More than 51,000 samples were analysed in 2022, including 11,728 corn samples. Samples were collected from 42 countries located in the production regions of Europe, North America, Latin America, MEA, and Asia. GLOBAL MYCOTOXIN CONTAMINATION IN CORN Mycotoxin contamination levels in corn ranged from 29% to 49% (Table 1). The highest contamination for corn was seen with Fumonisins (57%) followed by ZEA (52%) and AF/DON (49%), while ochratoxin was found least often – in 29% of samples. Toxins with the highest mean concentrations included DON and fumonisins, which averaged 1271ppb and 1629ppb, respectively. However, the median concentration for both contaminants was much lower – 700ppb and 902ppb, respectively – suggesting that some outlier samples with high concentrations could be skewing the analysis. It is recommended, therefore, to present both mean and median values for mycotoxin concentrations. A detailed pictorial mycotoxin distribution can be seen in Figure 1 in the form of a box plot and a jitter. Within the box, the diamond shape represents mean while the centre line of box represents median. The closer the diamond is to the centre line, the more uniform the data. REGIONAL MYCOTOXIN CONTAMINATION IN CORN Due to the varied corn growing and storage conditions in different regions of the world, it is important to analyse individual mycotoxin contamination percentages and concentrations by region. Please refer to Table 2 for details. Aflatoxins. 78% of the corn samples tested in Asia were contaminated with AF followed by Europe and North America (Table 2). The contamination in Asia is expected but that of Europe and North America is a concern. As AF are highly regulated in Europe and North America, such high levels in corn can pose Table 1. Global mycotoxin contamination and concentrations in corn (2022) Mycotoxin Aflatoxins DON Fumonisins Ochratoxins T2HT2 Zearalenone Contamination % 49 49 57 29 44 52 Average, ppb 15 1271 1629 7 63 139 Median, ppb 3 700 902 3 18 57 Figure 1. Mycotoxin distribution in corn (ppb)
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