Mycotoxins survey of 2021 harvested corn from different regions of Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Croatia

The aim of the present study was to screen corn samples received from different regions of Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia between September and November 2021 to determine their level of contamination with mycotoxins.

Jog Raj*, Hunor Farkaš, Zdenka Jakovčević, Robert Čepela and Marko Vasiljević

PATENT CO, DOO., Vlade Ćetkovića 1A, Mišićevo 24211, Serbia
*Corresponding author: [email protected]

In this survey, 200 samples were analysed for multiple mycotoxins. The corn samples were all analysed by LC-MS/ MS triple quadrupole (Agilent 6460 series) using a multi-mycotoxin method for quantification of all mycotoxins present.

These included Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), B2, G1 and G2, Ochratoxin A (OTA), Zearalenone (ZEN), Deoxynivalenol (DON), Fumonisin B1 and B2 (FB1 and FB2), T-2 and HT-2 toxins that are all regulated in the EU in feed by EU Directives 2002/32/EC, 2006/576/EC, and 2013/165/EU.

The results of this survey per country are presented as follows.

  • Part 1: Mycotoxins results per country (Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Croatia)
  • ⇰ Part 2: RMycotoxins results for Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia combined
  • ⇰ Conclusions

MYCOTOXIN RESULTS PER COUNTRY

In 2021, 17 % of the corn samples from Serbia were not contaminated with mycotoxins whereas 83% samples were found to contain one or more than one mycotoxin (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Number of mycotoxins per corn sample from Serbia.

DON, with an average of 215 ppb, ZEN with 40 ppb, AFB1 with 14 ppb, T-2 with 47 ppb, FB1 with 4700 ppb, FB2 with 1722 ppb and HT-2 with an average of 61 ppb were detected in 2021 harvested corn samples from different regions of Serbia.

FB1 was the most predominant mycotoxin as it was detected in 79% of the tested samples followed by AFB1 in 20 % of the corn samples (Table 1).

Table 1. Mycotoxin contamination levels (ppb) in corn samples from Serbia in 2021.

In the corn harvested from Serbia in 2021, 83% of the samples were contaminated with one or more than one mycotoxin and fumonisins were the most prevalent mycotoxins detected in these samples using LC-MS/MS.


Micotoxicosis prevention
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