Cooccurrence of Mycotoxins in Maize and Poultry Feeds from Brazil by Liquid Chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry

The objective of this study was to quantitatively evaluate mycotoxins in samples of maize and poultry feed produced in Brazil. A multimycotoxin method based on HPLC-MS/MS was applied to investigate the occurrence of toxical fungal metabolites in 119 samples collected from poultry feed factory integrated poultry farms: maize grain (74), poultry feed (36), and feed factory residue (9). Twenty of 101 fungal metabolites investigated were detected and quantified in the samples: aflatoxins B-1, B-2, G(1), and G(2), fumonisins B-1, B-2, and B-3, hydrolyzed fumonisin B-1, zearalenone, agroclavine, chanoclavine, deoxynivalenol, and nivalenol, and enniatin A, A(1), B, B-1, beauvericin, kojic acid, and moniliformin. Most samples were contaminated with more than one mycotoxin. All samples were contaminated with fumonisins, with medians values of 1,840 mu g/kg, 239 mu g/kg, and 23,676 mu g/kg for maize, feed, and factory residue samples, respectively. Surprisingly, beauvericin was detected in more than 90% of samples. The median contaminations of aflatoxin and trichothecenes were low, near LOD values. The factory residue presented highest contamination levels for all mycotoxins. This is the first study dealing with agroclavine, chanoclavine, enniatin A, A(1), B, B-1, beauvericin, and kojic acid contamination of maize and poultry feeds from Brazil.