Simultaneous detection of airborne Aflatoxin, Ochratoxin and Zearalenone in a poultry house by immunoaffinity clean-up and high-performance liquid chromatography

An AOZ method, based on high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), was optimized on HPLC condition such as mobile phase and wavelength to simultaneously quantify six kinds of mycotoxins [four aflatoxins (AFs), ochratoxin A (OTA) and zearalenone (ZEA)]. Conditions for immunoaffinity clean-up, HPLC and photo-derivatization were optimized in this study and successfully applied in assessment of airborne mycotoxins from a poultry house in Dalian, China. Fifty-two air samples were collected with AGI-30 air samplers using pure water as collection media. Twenty air samples (20/52, 38.46%) were positive for four toxins. Among the positive samples, airborne mycotoxin c ncentrations (mean +/- S.D.) for AFG2, AFBI, and ZEA were 0.189 +/- 0.024 (n = 9), 0.080 +/- 0.003 (n = 11) and 2.363 +/- 0.030 (n = 5) ng/m(3) air, while the concentration for OTA was 8.530 (n = 1) ng/m(3). No positive sample was found for either AFG(1) or AFB(2). A chicken may inhale 0.019-0.057ng AFG(2), 0.013-0.019ng AFB(1), 0.436-0.513ng ZEA, and 1.706ng OTA, respectively, in a day. A poultry worker may inhale 0.504-1.512 ng AFB(1), 0.752-2.28 ng AFG(2), 68.240 ng OTA, and 17.432-20.512 ng ZEA in a working day. This is the first report on airborne mycotoxins in poultry house. These data may have importance in animal and public health implications. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.