There are more than 300 potential mycotoxins that can contaminate food and feed and cause adverse effects in humans and animals. The data on the co-occurrence of mycotoxins in novel animal feed materials, such as distiller's dried grain with solubles (DDGS), are limited. Thus, a UHPLC-MS/MS method for the quantitation of 77 mycotoxins and other fungal metabolites was used to analyze 169 DDGS samples produced from wheat, maize, and barley and 61 grain samples. All DDGS samples analyzed were contaminated with 13-34 different mycotoxins. Fumonisins were present in all 52 maize DDGS samples (81.0-6890 μg/kg for fumonisin B1), and deoxynivalenol was present in all 99 wheat DDGS samples (39.3-1120 μg/kg). A number of co-occurring mycotoxins were also identified. Due to the high co-occurrence of mycotoxins, routine screening of the animal feed ingredients is highly recommended to allow the highlighted risks to be effectively managed.
Keywords: DDGS; animal health; feed; fungal contamination; grain; multimycotoxins contamination.