The Analysis of a Feed Component Imported into South Africa for Aflatoxin in Relation to Fungal and Mycotoxin Contamination

Currently there is concern with respect to the occurrence of mycotoxins in feed commodities, which could result in the loss of animal production and danger to consumers. Recent legislation to control the trading of such contaminated materials has been initiated with the result that it is imperative to be able to analyse for mycotoxins in feed commodities, rapidly and with sufficient accuracy to ensure that bulk cargoes of such materials are within set safety limits. To this end a large batch (800 tonnes) of cotton-seed meal was consigned to a South African feed miller and was sampled according to a protocol devised under the European Union Framework 6 Biotracer programme. These were split and analysed for aflatoxins (AFs) by two laboratories using the VICAM fluorimetry aflatoxin method (VF) and by an high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method (HPLC) as part of another study to determine the statistical variation of using composite samples derived from a large bulk cargo (Reiter et al., 2011). The results from the HPLC method showed that all the composites were contaminated with aflatoxins (AF) ranging from 24 – 93µg/kg. A comparison of the two analytical methods used,