December 20, 2017

Nutriad releases Spain mycotoxin survey results

The survey covered 121 corn samples from across Spain.

All samples were collected almost immediately after the harvest from farms or animal feed production sites. More than 480 analyses were conducted to test for the occurrence of the four mycotoxins most frequently found in agricultural commodities intended for animal production: aflatoxin B1 (AfB1), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FUM) (sum of fumonisin B1 and fumonisin B2). 

The Nutriad 2017 mycotoxin survey concluded that the year's harvest of corn in Spain was of medium quality (>LOQ but below EU recommendation levels) in terms of mycotoxin contamination (DON, ZEN, FUM). The exceptions were the very high average and the maximum concentrations of aflatoxin B1 which clearly exceeded the concentration of aflatoxin B1 permitted in the EU in feed materials. Due to the unexpected very high average and maximum concentrations of aflatoxin B1, the 2017 corn crop in Spain should not be considered safe for inclusion into finished feed rations for dairy milk producers and a degree of vigilance is prudent.

A common last possible line of defence is the detoxification of mycotoxins in vivo. The addition of proven mycotoxin deactivators to animal feeds is a very common method to prevent mycotoxicosis and is an effective strategy to keep mycotoxin risk low under any and all conditions.