Mycotoxins Hazard Assessment of Feedstuffs from Multiple Sources Products Commercially Imported for Iraq

Abstract

Contamination feedstuffs with fungi or their metabolites toxins poses considerable hazard to public health and animal welfare. The information on mycotoxins identified from a variety of feedstuff in 2021 (soyabean, maize, fish meals, and poultry pellets) was retrieved from archive papers documented in the Centre of Standardization and Quality Control/Department of Agriculture. A total of 1325 samples feedstuff were examined by this Centre using the direct ELISA test to detect aflatoxins, ochratoxin, and trichothecene. The aflatoxin was identified in 67 (5.05%) samples followed by ochratoxin in 52 (3.92%) samples and Trichothecene (T2) in 50 (3.77) samples. Additionally, the results were showed the co-infection/co-occurrence of mycotoxins from positive samples of soyabean, fish meals, and poultry pellet, although this contamination within acceptable level. Only two samples of poultry feed were determined to have contamination levels above the acceptable limit, as 21ppb with aflatoxins and 19ppb with ochratoxin contamination. The moisture levels were also measured for these commodities by NIR apparatus. From statistics outputs, the squared correlation coefficient (R2) did not share too much variability between moisture and degree of contamination with three mycotoxins identified. The study concluded that mycotoxins remain to be a concern for global health, and their residues in animal feed are important in terms of health safety standards that propose adhering to food chain regulations in commercial markets.