Emerging Fusarium Mycotoxins Fusaproliferin, Beauvericin, Enniatins, and Moniliformin in Serbian Maize

Abstract

Emerging mycotoxins such as moniliformin (MON), enniatins (ENs), beauvericin (BEA), and fusaproliferin (FUS) may contaminate maize and negatively influence the yield and quality of grain. The aim of this study was to determine the content of emerging Fusarium mycotoxins in Serbian maize from the 2016, 2017, and 2018 harvests. A total of 190 samples from commercial maize production operations in Serbia were analyzed for the presence of MON, ENs, BEA, and FUS using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS). The obtained results were interpreted together with weather data from each year. MON, BEA, and FUS were major contaminants, while other emerging mycotoxins were not detected or were found in fewer samples (<20%). Overall contamination was highest in 2016 when MON and BEA were found in 50–80% of samples. In 2017 and 2018, high levels of MON, FUS, and BEA were detected in regions with high precipitation and warm weather during the silking phase of maize (July and the beginning of August), when the plants are most susceptible to Fusarium infections. Since environmental conditions in Serbia are favorable for the occurrence of mycotoxigenic fungi, monitoring Fusarium toxins is essential for the production of safe food and feed.

Multi-Mycotoxin Occurrence and Exposure Assessment Approach in Foodstuffs from Algeria

“…Other previous works including determination of ENNs and BEA in cereals also showed the high incidence of these mycotoxins. Thus, a high incidence of BEA (80%) was recently reported in Serbian maize with levels ranging from 8 to 129 µg/kg [7]. Moreover, a study on the occurrence of emerging mycotoxins in Spanish cereals showed high incidence of ENNs (73.4%), wherein ENNA1 was the most frequent emerging mycotoxins, with the highest concentrations (33.3-814 mg/kg) [51].…”

Entomopathogenic fungi: unconventional applications

“…On the one hand, beauvericins contribute to the contamination of cereal crops worldwide, bioaccumulate in different tissues, and enter the food chain by polluting eggs, milk, meat, and plant products, consequently leading to apoptosis, production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), or mitochondrial damage (Olleik et al 2019). On the other hand, they have been shown to exert strong cytotoxic effect on tumor cells, inhibit the activity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Plasmodium falciparum, and restrict the activity of the cholesterol acyltransferase inhibitor (Urbaniak et al 2019;Jajić et al 2019). Bassianolide has activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and, like beauvericins, against M. tuberculosis.…”

Current Status of Mycotoxin Contamination of Food and Feeds and Associated Public Health Risk in Serbia

“…Emerging fusariotoxins have mostly been investigated in Mediterranean countries. Moreover, their presence has been reported recently in maize from Serbia (Jajic et al, 2019;Janic Hajnal, et al, 2020). The authors found that MON, BEA and FUS had the highest presence among the emerging mycotoxins and were present in maize from all the investigated regions in the country (Jajic et al, 2019;Janic Hajnal, et al, 2020).…”

“…Their common co-occurrence at low levels in food and feed presents a threat to human and animal health, inducing major economic losses for farmers, industry, international trade and society. Besides these, some other mycotoxins such as "modified mycotoxins", "masked mycotoxins", and new, emerging mycotoxins (moniliformin, enniatins, beauvericin and fusaproliferin) are also the subjects of notable attention in on-going investigations (Jajic et al, 2019). The term modified mycotoxins refers to any mycotoxin with a structure that has been changed in the course of some chemical/biochemical reaction by plants, animals, fungi or by processing (Rychlik et al, 2014).…”