Mycotoxicological Study of Maize Feed Grain (1998–2018)

Abstract

For maize grain, which has been important for the forage production of the country over the past two decades, persistent contamination with toxins of fusarium fungi, more often T-2/HT-2 toxins, fumonisins, and more rarely with deoxynivalenol and zearalenone in quantities that pose risks for animal intoxication was showed by enzyme immunoassay. The cases of superintensive accumulation of cyclopiazonic acid, citrinin, mycophenolic acid, and ochratoxin A were revealed. In 2016–2018, for maize grain from four subjects of the Central Federal District of the Russian Federation, a significant prevalence of T-2/HT-2 toxins, deoxynivalenol, and fumonisins with fluctuations in the frequency of occurrence of zearalenone over the years was found; diacetoxyscirpenol was detected in several samples from the Kursk and Voronezh oblasts. Contamination of grain with alternariol in 2016 and 2017 was mild both by frequency (5.3%) and accumulation levels (20–85 μg/kg), but the proportion of samples containing this toxin was 40.7% with a content range of 25–295 μg/kg in the yield of 2018. The influence of soil and climatic factors on the nature of mycotoxin contamination of the maize grain yield, the contribution of fungi belonging to dematiaceous hyphomycetes, and the prevailing variants of combined contamination with fusariotoxins are discussed.