Mycotoxin co-contamination of food and feed: meta-analysis of publications describing toxicological interactions

Most fungi are able to produce several mycotoxins simultaneously; moreover food and feed can be contaminated by several fungi species at the same time. Thus, humans and animals are generally not exposed to one mycotoxin but to several toxins at the same time. Most of the studies concerning the toxicological effect of mycotoxins have been carried out taking into account only one mycotoxin. In the present review, we analysed 112 reports where laboratory or farm animals were exposed to a combination of mycotoxins, and we determined for each parameter measured the type of interaction that was observed. Most of the published papers concern interactions with aflatoxins and other mycotoxins, especially fumonisins, ochratoxin A and trichothecenes. A few papers also investigated the interaction between ochratoxin A and citrinin, or between different toxins from Fusarium species. Only experiments with a 2x2 factorial design with individual and combined effects of the mycotoxins were selected. Based on the raw published data, we classified the interactions in four different categories: synergistic, additive, less than additive or antagonistic effects. This review highlights the complexity of mycotoxins interactions which varies according to the animal species, the dose of toxins, the length of exposure, but also the parameters measured.