Nutriad conducted several surveys in European countries in 2015 to test for the occurrence of the most prevalent mycotoxins found in crops intended for animal feed production.

In Spain, the survey looked at 60 locally produced maize samples that were tested for incidences of aflatoxin B1 (AfB1), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON), T-2 toxin, fumonisin B1 (FB1), fumonisin B2 (FB2) and ochratoxin A (OTA).

The samples were collected either directly from the farms or from animal feed production sites immediately after the harvest when the probability that some storage mycotoxins such as OTA would have developed was low.

The results showed that the 2015 harvest of maize in Spain is of concerning quality and that the crop should not be considered safe for inclusion into finished feed rations for all animal species. Maize as the most important feed ingredient will likely be contaminated with the mixture of deoxynivalenol, aflatoxins and fumonisins.

The last possible line of defense is the detoxification of mycotoxins in vivo and Nutriad recommends the addition of an effective mycotoxin deactivator.