Immunoaffinity Cleanup and Isotope Dilution-Based Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry for the Determination of Six Major Mycotoxins in Feed and Feedstuff

In this study, a liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of deoxynivalenol, aflatoxin B-1, zearalenone, ochratoxin A, T-2 toxin and fumonisin B-1 in feed and feedstuff was established. The sample was extracted with an acetonitrile-water mixture (60:40, v/v), purified by an immunoaffinity column, eluted with a methanol-acetic acid mixture (98:2, v/v), and reconstituted with a methanol-water mixture (50:50, v/v) after drying with nitrogen. Finally, the reconstituted solution was detected by LC-MS/MS and quantified by isotope internal standard method. The six mycotoxins had a good linear relationship in a certain concentration range, the correlation coefficients were all greater than 0.99, the limits of detection were between 0.075 and 1.5 mu g center dot kg(-1), and the limits of quantification were between 0.5 and 5 mu g center dot kg(-1). The average spike recoveries in the four feed matrices ranged from 84.2% to 117.1% with relative standard deviations less than 11.6%. Thirty-six actual feed samples were analyzed for mycotoxins, and at least one mycotoxin was detected in each sample. The proposed method is reliable and suitable for detecting common mycotoxins in feed samples.

Automated summary

In this study, a LC-MS/MS method was developed for simultaneous determination of six mycotoxins in feed and feedstuff. The method showed good linearity, low detection limits, and was reliable for detecting mycotoxins in actual feed samples.