Multi-mycotoxin screening reveals the occurrence of 139 different secondary metabolites in feed and feed ingredients

The development of liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS)/mass spectrometry (MS) methods for the simultaneous detection and quantification of a broad spectrum of mycotoxins has facilitated the screening of a larger number of samples for contamination with a wide array of less well-known "emerging" mycotoxins and other metabolites. In this study, 83 samples of feed and feed raw materials were analysed. All of them were found to contain seven to 69 metabolites. The total number of detected metabolites amounts to 139. Fusarium mycotoxins were most common, but a number of Alternaria toxins also occurred very often. Furthermore, two so-called masked mycotoxins (i.e., mycotoxin conjugates), namely deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside (75% positives) and zearalenone-4-sulfate (49% positives), were frequently detected. Although the observed median concentrations of the individual analytes were generally in the low μg/kg range, evaluating the toxicological potential of a given sample is difficult. Toxicity data on less well-known mycotoxins and other detected metabolites are notoriously scarce, as an overview on the available information on the most commonly detected metabolites shows. Besides, the possible synergistic effects of co-occurring substances have to be considered.