Toxicity of fungi isolated from livestock feed and poultry in Khorramabad county

Introduction: Mycotoxins are primary or secondary metabolic products. A wide variety of mold fungi such as Aspergillus, Fusarium and other fungi are capable of producing large amounts of dangerous mycotoxins in human and animal food.<br /> Material and method: In this study, samples of animal and poultry feed were transferred to the laboratory and cultured on potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium. After isolation, purification and identification, fungal toxicity was performed on the corn media and coconut agar medium was used for toxicity assessment. Then they were evaluated using standard toxin on the TLC plate in the TLC tank under ultraviolet (UV) light. Also, quantitative evaluation of toxins was performed using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).<br /> Results:The results showed that the samples were infected with Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, A. ochraceous, A. niger, Penicilliun glabrum, Fusarium verticillioides, F. proliferatum, F. fujikuroi, F. concentricum, Rhizopus oreyzae, Absidia corymbifera, Rhizomucor sp., Trichothecium sp. and Alternaria alternata. Rhizomucor, Absidia and Fusarium (15 and 27.5%) were most infected in poultry and F. prolifratum (62.1%) in animal feed, respectively. Also, according to TLC, F. prolifratum and F. verticillioides emitted the highest light, while Rhizomucor received the least light and, consequently, the least toxicity. Based on HPLC results of F. verticillioides and A. flavus isolates, Fumonisin B1 and A. niger had the highest amount of aflatoxin G1.<br /> Discussion and conclusion: In the present study, Aspergillus, Rhizomocor and Fusarium showed fluorescence in coconut-agar medium. After puncturing on the TLC plate, the toxin-containing dots had a higher fluorescence intensity, which the overall results of this toxin assay by HPLC also confirm this.