Natural Occurrence of Fumonisin B₁ and Its Co-occurrence with Aflatoxin B₁ in Indian Sorghum, Maize, and Poultry Feeds

Abstract

A total of 138 samples consisting of 19 rain-affected sorghum, 25 rain-affected maize, 35 normal maize, 44 normal sorghum, and 14 poultry feed samples collected from six different places were analyzed for fumonisin B1 and aflatoxin B1. All the rain-affected sorghum and maize samples were contaminated with fumonisin B1 in the range 0.07−8 and 0.04−65 mg/kg, respectively. On the other hand 26 normal maize samples and 2 normal sorghum samples were contaminated with fumonisin B1 at levels ranging from 0.01 to 5 and 0.15 to 0.51 mg/kg. Fumonisin B1 contamination in the poultry feed samples ranged from 0.02 to 0.26 mg/kg. All of the rain-affected samples and poultry feed samples were contaminated with aflatoxin B1. 20% of normal sorghum and 89% of normal maize samples also contained aflatoxin B1 in the range of 5−125 and 0.38−109 μg/kg, respectively. This study reports for the first time the natural co-occurrence of fumonisin B1 and aflatoxin B1 in Indian maize and poultry feeds. Keywords: Fumonisin B1; aflatoxin B1; Fusarium moniliforme; co-occurrence; sorghum; maize; poultry feeds