Occurrence of fumonisins in feed for swine and horses.

This research focuses on the presence of fumonisins, which are types of mycotoxins commonly found in corn, in animal feed for pigs and horses from 2007 to 2010 in Portugal. The results show an increase in these contaminants over the study years but they remained below levels considered harmful according to the European Commission guidelines.

Detailed Explanation

The paper revolves around finding out if the types of mycotoxins called fumonisins, specifically Fumonisin B1 (FB1) and Fumonisin B2 (FB2), could possibly compromise crops, livestock feed, and animal health in Portugal. Special attention was given to such occurrence from 2007 to 2010.

The mycotoxins were mainly found in corn and their based products used in animal meals. The research aimed to discover if there were dangerous levels of these toxins present in horse and pig feed in the said time frame.

• Investigators analyzed 363 samples for this study, 258 of which were from pig feed and 105 from horse feed. The High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) method was utilized in this process. Their detection limit was set at 50 μg/kg for FB1 and 100 μg/kg for FB2.
• Based on their findings, FB1 occurrence rate was at 13% across the years examined, with about 17% of pig feed samples containing the toxin. The presence was significantly higher in 2010, with a detection rate of 32.9%. This meant higher contamination, but the toxin levels remained ranging from 66.7 to 3815.5 μg/kg.
• FB2, on the other hand, was only detected in pig feed (6 samples) and horse feed (1 sample) in 2010. The levels in pig feed ranged from 104.0 to 467.2 μg/kg.

Conclusion

All in all, the researchers observed an increase in fumonisin occurrence across the three-year time frame. However, they concluded that these findings do not necessarily pose threats to animal health in Portugal. This is due to the fact that even though these toxins were present, their amounts were all below the guidance values released by the European Commission.