BIOMIN’s Mycotoxin Survey – 3rd Quarter Report 2011

BIOMIN, the leader in Mycotoxin Risk Management, is proud to introduce you the mycotoxin analyzes results for the third quarter of 2011.

This data will enable you to assess the risk level incurred by the use of commodities from certain regions. In the period between July and September 2011, a total of 1360 samples were analyzed and 4774 analyzes were carried out for the most important mycotoxins in terms of agriculture and animal production – aflatoxins (Afla), zearalenone (ZON), deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisins (FUM) and ochratoxin A (OTA). Samples were originated from different regions: America (North and South), Asia (South-East, South and North), Oceania and Europe (Northern, Central and Southern) and Middle East and Africa.

Samples tested were diverse, ranging from cereals such as corn, wheat, barley and rice to processing
by-products, namely soybean meal, corn gluten meal, dried distillers grains with soluble (DDGS) and other fodder such as straw, silage and finished feed. This is the third of 4 reports to be released this year. If this information is useful for you, make sure you do not miss the others.

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Figure 1 gives an overview on the distribution of mycotoxins amongst different world regions.

Figure 1: Prevalence of mycotoxins in different geographic regions according to percentage of positive samples (

As can be observed in Figure 2, from the 804 survey samples analyzed 24 %, 31 %, 48 %, 50 % and 18 % tested positive for contamination with Afla, ZON, DON, FUM and OTA, respectively.

Figure 2: Global occurrence of mycotoxins between July and September 2011 in the analyzed samples

From Figure 3, it is obvious that mycotoxins are an ubiquitous problem as 89 % of the analyzed samples show the presence of, at least, one mycotoxin. The presence of more than one mycotoxin
in 35 % of the samples raises the attention to the problem of synergistic effects caused by multiple mycotoxins in animal feeds.

Figure 3: Global co-occurrence of mycotoxins

Tables 1 to 5 present an overview of the survey with details on analyzed samples. Number of samples tested, percentage of positive samples, average of positive, 75th percentile and maximum levels found are shown. 25 % of the tested samples fall at levels equal to or above those represented by the 75th percentile figure.

Table 1 - 5: Mycotoxin analysis results by different regions

BIOMIN GmbH and the authors had no influence on the sampling process of the investigated samples. Therefore, the contamination levels found in the samples do not necessarily reflect the actual contamination level of these regions / commodities. However, the samples provide more insight into the range and levels of mycotoxins which can be found in diverse commodities of various regions.