authored by Carlos Augusto Mallmann1*
Abstract
Corn is commonly attacked by fungi and mycotoxins. The negative impacts caused by these toxic metabolites justify the use tools that enable constant monitoring and provide a quick feedback. The natural occurrence of mycotoxins, fumonisins B1+B2 (FUM), Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1), Deoxynivalenol (DON) and Zearalenone (ZEN) was investigated through Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) in 3,069 spectra of corn samples from several Brazilian states throughout 2019. FUM was the most prevalent (98.2%) mycotoxin found in this study, followed by AFB1 (20.3%), DON (9.6%) and ZEN (5.9%). The annual average of FUM (B1+B2) was 2,092 μg kg-1 and the average in positive samples was 2,130 μg kg-1, with variations in some periods of the year. The annual mean of AFB1 was low, 1.8 μg kg-1, and the average in positive samples was 8.9 μg kg-1. As well as the prevalence, the concentrations of DON and ZEN were relatively low: 39 and 6 μg kg-1, respectively. These findings show the importance of mycotoxicological monitoring to avoid economic losses and to spare animal health. The use of rapid diagnostic tools, such as NIR, allows decision making in an agile and efficient way.
Keywords: Zea mays L; Aflatoxins; Fumonisins; Online; Monitoring; Risk
Introduction
Corn (Zea mays L.) is one of the most cultivated cereals around the world. It has a relevant role in economy and society due to its high nutritional value and productive potential [1,2]. Brazil is the third major producer of corn, after the United States and China [3]. Most Brazilian states are corn producers, but the largest volume of the cereal is harvested in the mid-west, the southeast and the south regions. Considering the 2018/2019 corn harvest, the leading state was Mato Grosso (31.3%), followed by Paraná (16.7%) and Goiás (11.5%) [4]. The main destination of this commodity is the domestic market, with the animal feed sector being its largest consumer [5].
Brazilian climatic conditions in association with harvest, storage and transport issues, can cause fungal growth and mycotoxin production [6-8]. Corn is widely attacked by fungi and mycotoxins because it is a highly nutritious substrate for their development [9-11]. The main mycotoxins found in Brazilian corn are those of the Aspergillus genus that produce aflatoxins (AFBs), and those of the Fusarium genus which produce fumonisins (FUM), zearalenone (ZEN) and deoxynivalenol (DON) [12,13]. Several studies have investigated these toxic substances due to their global economic impacts and toxic effects in humans and animals [14].
Mycotoxins can cause several deleterious health effects, mainly due to their anabolic, estrogenic, carcinogenic, mutagenic and teratogenic properties [15]. There are approximately two dozen known FUM; however, FB1, FB2 and FB3 stand out for their toxic effects in humans and animals [16,17]. FB1 is the most toxic and abundant of them all, representing about 70% of the total concentration of FUM in naturally contaminated food and raw materials, followed by FB2 and FB3 [18]. In horses, FUM cause hemorrhagic‐liquefactive brain lesions (equine leuko encephalomalacia) [19], while in swine they trigger pulmonary edema [20]. In humans, these toxins are associated with eso phageal cancer [21,22].
AFBs (AFB1, AFB2, AFG1 and AFG2) are currently the most important mycotoxins [23] for inducing a drop in animal performance, in addition to their carcinogenic, teratogenic, hepatotoxic and immunosuppressive risk [24,25]. As a result, AFB1 was classified in class 1 of human carcinogens by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) [26]. ZEN and its biotransformation products are well known for their impact on reproduction parameters, especially in sows [27,28]. Growing animals may show flaws in reproductive parameters and decreased semen quality [29]. DON is associated with digestive problems, causing vomiting, refusal to eat and lesions in the gastrointestinal tract, as well as interference with zootechnical parameters [30,31].
Due to their negative impacts, monitoring of these toxic substances must be continuous. There are several sensitive, specific and reliable analytical methods used in the detection of mycotoxins in feed and food, such as Liquid Chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) [32,33]. Currently, optical methods, such as Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR) [34,35], have made great headway for being agile and non-destructive technologies [34]. In view of the above, the present investigation aimed to assess the prevalence and average of mycotoxins in Brazilian corn through NIR prediction along 2019.
Materials and Methods
Three thousand and sixty-nine corn samples from ten states of Brazil were predicted throughout 2019. The spectra originated from routine samples predicted through the Olimpo platform, a web service of Pegasus Science Lt da [36], connected to different NIR equipment located in various Brazilian laboratories and industries. The samples were previously ground in a sampler miller with a sieve size of 1mm, homogenized and then read on the NIR equipment.
Subsequently, the corn samples were predicted for the presence and concentration of FUM (B1 and B2), AFB1, DON and ZEN. These assessments resulted in 6,134 predictions of FUM (B1 and B2), 3,069 of AFB1, 3,029 of DON and 2,971 of ZEN, amounting to 15,203 analyses. The LOQ (in μg kg-1) for FB1, FB2, AFB1, DON and ZEN were 200, 200, 5, 350 and 30, respectively. The statistical evaluations were carried out by applying descriptive statistics (mean, range and prevalence) using the Stat graphics® Centurion XV software (Statgraphics Centurion 15.2.11, Manugistics Inc., Rockville, MD).
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