Research Article

Contamination with microscopic fungi and their metabolites in chicken feeds produced in western Poland in the years 2009–2010

Kinga Stuper, Renata Cegielska-Radziejewska, Tomasz Szablewski, Anna Ostrowska, Maciej Buśko, Juliusz Perkowski

Poznań University of Life Sciences, Poland

1. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 14(3), 2015, 107‒122

Abstract. The aim of this study was to assess the level of contamination in feed mixes for broiler chickens produced in four commercial-scale feed mills located in western Poland in the years 2009–2010. Quality appraisal and quantitative analyses of feed contamination with microscopic fungi and trichothecenes were conducted in this study. It was found that starter type feeds were significantly less contaminated with microscopic fungi and mycotoxins than feed mixes for older chickens. In 2009 higher levels of contamination with the determined microorganisms and their toxic metabolites were found in feeds than it was in 2010. In terms of quality in the analysed feed samples the most frequently identified microscopic fungi were moulds from the genera Aspergillus, Rhisopus and Mucor. Among the detected mycotoxins DON, DAS, 3-AcDON and Fus-X were detected most frequently. The admissible DON contamination level imposed by the EU regulations was not exceeded in any of the analysed feed samples.

Keywords: feeds, ergosterol, trichothecenes, microscopic fungi, CFU