A systematic review of global occurrence of emerging mycotoxins in crops and animal feeds, and their toxicity in livestock

Mycotoxins are the most frequently occurring natural contaminant in food and feed. Their occurrence in crops and animal feed represents an enormous challenge, particularly for livestock farmers in terms of increased production costs, reduced animal performance and profitability. This study investigates the scale of emerging mycotoxins contamination of crops and animal feeds globally, and evaluates their impacts on the health and performance of livestock, especially when they co-occur alongside regulated mycotoxins. Emerging mycotoxins including nivalenol, enniatins, beauvericin, diacetoxyscirpenol, fusaric acid, patulin, moniliformin and sterigmatocystin were found to be the most prevalent contaminants of cereals and other feed commodities worldwide. The pooled mean levels for beauvericin, nivalenol, enniatins, moniliformin, sterigmatocystin, diacetoxyscirpenol, fusaric acid, and patulin were 386, 421, 7,854, 204, 136, 126, 370 and 138 μg/kg, respectively. In terms of toxicity, co-occurrence of emerging mycotoxins with each other and also with regulated mycotoxins profoundly impacts livestock performance, even at low levels. Therefore, there is a need for cumulative risk assessments to evaluate the health risks associated with simultaneous exposure to emerging and regulated mycotoxins and also to develop effective mitigation strategies.