Presence of Mutagens and Carcinogens, Called Aflatoxins, and their Hydroxylated Metabolites in Industrialized Food for Dogs

Abstract

Introduction: The Aflatoxin contamination in dog food poses a serious health threat for dogs and it affects pet food industry, veterinarians and owners. Pets that are long-lived and healthy consumers contribute to sales, so any reduction in product quality has an effect on profits or even a company’s survival. Pet food safety is the responsibility of the pet food industry. Aims: To determine the type and amount of aflatoxins in 29 samples of dry food and 24 brands of canned food for dogs. Methodology: The chemical extraction method used immunoaffinity columns with antibodies for total aflatoxins, and the quantification was performed with liquid chromatography and fluorescence detection. The method was validated, so the results were considered to be reliable once the recovery percentage was applied. Results and Discussion: With respect to dry food, the average Aflatoxins (μg kg-1) contamination was AFB1 (1.6), B2 (0.1), AFG1 (28.2), AFG2 (1.3), AFM1 (1.8), AFM2 (0.2), P1 (1.7), Aflatoxicol (28.6), and Total aflatoxins (59.1), and the average of dry food samples was 7.9 μg kg-1 total aflatoxins. Canned food contained AFB1 (14.2), AFB2 (2.3), AFG1 (60.4), AFG2 (4.5), AFM1 (2.1), AFM2 (4.6), AFP1 (18.4), AFL (13.1), and AFt (119.5), and the average of all of the samples was 15.3 μg kg-1. According to statistical analysis, significant differences (p-value) between dry food and canned food were observed for AFB1 (p<0.001) and AFL (p<0.001). Canned food was more contaminated than dry food.Conclusion: Aflatoxins are common carcinogens of food for dog. The dry food croquettes for dogs had 51.6% less aflatoxins, with an average of 7.9 μg kg-1 total aflatoxins, under the tolerable legal limit, and the canned food, more contaminated (15.3 μg kg-1), and surpassed the tolerable limit for Codex Alimentarius. The addition of hydroxylated metabolites gaves the true ingestion measure of Aflatoxins.