Aflatoxins and aflatoxigenic fungal contamination of common poultry feed products in Katsina State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to screen the common poultry feed products sold within Katsina State, Nigeria, for the presence of aflatoxigenic fungi and aflatoxins. A total of 15 poultry feed samples from 3 major producing companies were purchased from retailers, and then cultured for fungal isolation on potato dextrose agar (PDA) supplemented with Cycloheximide. Fungal colonies were identified using standard mycological techniques. The samples were further extracted using a methanol-water solvent (v/v) 1:2, and the extracts were analyzed for the presence of aflatoxins using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). A total of 30 fungal isolates comprising Aspergillus spp. (30%), Mucor spp. (30%), Rhodotorula spp. (13.3%), Rhizopus spp. (10%), Saccharomyces spp. (10%), Geotrichum spp. (3.3%) and Endomyces spp. (3.3%) were recovered. The FTIR results showed that 10% of the samples were contaminated by aflatoxins as evidenced by the presence of peaks/wavenumbers specific for aflatoxins' functional groups in their FTIR spectra (2850 to 3100 cm -1 , 1650 to 2000 cm -1 , 1670 to 1820 cm -1 , 1400 to 1600 cm -1 , 1364 to 1369 cm-1 and 1040 to 1050 cm -1 , for aromatic -C-H and CH 2 , in-plane aromatic -CH bending, Carbonyl C=O, aromatic C=C, -CH 3 adjacent to epoxy ring, and symmetric stretching of =C-O-C, respectively). The poultry feeds analyzed were contaminated by aflatoxigenic fungi and aflatoxins, in addition to other potentially pathogenic fungi. Therefore, more stringent prevention and control methods are required to reduce the contamination levels, to avoid loss of poultry lives and possible transfer of carcinogenic mycotoxins to humans along the food chain. Aliyu, R.M.; Abubakar, M.B.; Yakubu, Y.; Kasarawa, A.B.; Lawal, N.; Bello, M.B. and Fardami, A.Y. (2016). Prevalence of potential toxigenic Aspergillus species isolated from poultry feeds in Sokoto metropolis. Sokoto Journal of Veterinary Science. 14(1): 39-44. Berardo, N.; Pisacane, V.; Battilani, P.; Scandolara, A.; Pietri, A. and Marocco, A. (2005). Rapid detection of kernel rots and mycotoxins in maize by near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. altitude Juniperus trees and their antimicrobial activities. Plant Biosystem. 150(1): 131-40. Greco, M.; Franchi, M.; Golba, S.; Pardo, A. and Pose, G. (2014). Mycotoxins and Mycotoxigenic Fungi in Poultry Feed for Food-Producing Animals. The Scientific World Journal. 1-9 Habib, M.A.; Abdu, P.; Kwanashie, C.N.; Kabir, J. and Negedu, A. (2015). Isolation and identification of Aspergillus species from poultry feeds in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Microbiology Research International. 3(2): 27-32. Haruna, M.; Dangora, D.B.; Khan, A.U.; Batagarawa, U.S.B. and Ibrahim, H. (2017). (2015). Mid-infrared spectroscopy for discrimination and classification of Aspergillus spp. contamination in peanuts. Food Control. 52(2014): 103-113. Kaya-Celiker, H; Mallikarjunan, P.K.; Schmale, D. and Christie, M.E. (2014). Discrimination of moldy peanuts with reference to aflatoxin using FTIR-ATR system. Food Control. 44: 64-67. Krnjaja, V.; ...

Bioburden, phenotypic and spectroscopic characterisation of toxigenic and atoxigenic Aspergillus section Flavi from poultry feeds in Kelantan, Malaysia and Katsina, Nigeria

“…However, as only a few studies are reporting consumer-level fungal contamination of chicken feed in Malaysia and Nigeria, it is clear that our research findings offer insight into the underlying mycoflora contamination of these items. The average contamination level across all sample categories was higher than the ICMSF's acceptable range of 2.0 to 5.0 log CFU/g (ICMSF, 2006) and it is consistent with other studies that document excessive fungal contamination in poultry feeds and food grains from Malaysia (Samsudin and Abdullah, 2013;Zulkifli and Zakaria, 2017;Norlia et al, 2018;Yazid et al, 2021) and Nigeria (Ezekiel et al, 2014;Monday et al, 2014;Egbuta et al, 2015;Ibrahim et al, 2018;Okafor and Eni, 2018;Salisu and Almajir, 2020;. On the contrary, Roslan (2016) reported lower fungal bioburden in Malaysian poultry feeds and grain-based foods, respectively.…”

“…In general, the high bioburden of fungi obtained in the present study may be due to long-time storage and poor storage conditions used by the poultry feed sellers, as opined by Habib et al (2015), Ibrahim et al (2018) and Salisu and Almajir (2020) who observed that majority of the Nigerian poultry sellers use insufficient and poor storage facilities (locked-up stores without air conditioning system or good ventilation). As a result, livestock feeds are frequently contaminated with mycotoxins and fungi in Nigeria.…”

“…Subsequently, serial dilution of the homogenate using 4 test tubes containing sterile peptone water as a diluent to achieve a dilution set of 10 -1 to 10 -4 for each sample was carried out, after which an aliquot of 100 µL from each tube was inoculated, by spread-plating, in triplicate on sterile potato dextrose agar media plates (PDA) (HiMedia India, M096), prepared and dispensed according to the manufacturer's instruction (Salisu and Almajir, 2020) and incubated at 28 ± 2 °C for five days. The plates were observed on the 3 rd and 5 th days of incubation.…”

“…Livestock feeds are significantly more prone to a high incidence of contamination by ATF and mycotoxins owing to their multicomponent raw materials from various agricultural commodities originating from varied sources with varying fungal loads (Xu et al, 2018). Aflatoxins have been found in animal diets in excess of the minimal allowable levels in a number of studies (Greco et al, 2014;Habib et al, 2015;Ibrahim et al, 2018;Salisu and Almajir, 2020). This high rate of feed contamination is especially typical in nations with hot and humid climates (Mgbeahuruike, 2016), such as Nigeria and Malaysia.…”

Review on the Aflatoxins’ Contamination of Foods and Public Health Effects among Nigerian Population

“…Aflatoxins are a group of low molecular weight toxic proteins compounds produced as secondary metabolites by fungi of the genera Aspergillus. Specie of A. flavus that grow under favourable conditions are excellent source of Aflatoxins (Salisu and Almajir, 2020). Several fungi were known to contaminate foods/feeds and consequently produce wide array of toxic metabolites and mycotoxins (Oliveira et al, 2017;Reddy et al, 2010;Uhlig et al, 2013;(Zaki, Shaheen and Rizzi, 2012;Berthiller et al, 2013;Alshannaq and Yu, 2017).…”