Mycotoxigenic Fungi and Mycotoxins in Egyptian Barley under Climate Changes

Abstract

Background: Barley was planted in more than hundred countries worldwide in 2013. The world output in 1974 was around 148 million tons, ever after, there has been a trivial come down in the produced amount of barley worldwide. Mycotoxins are one of the most important groups of anti-nutritional substances found in feed. Materials and Methods: Thirty barley feeding samples and 12 of Human Consuming (HC) samples were collected from 6 regions, each region was represented by a withdrawal of five representative samples directly after harvesting from the major storage locations within governorates under study. Results: Total Fungal Count (TFC) ratios varied from 31-83% on 2014 to 54-92% on 2015 in feed sample. Aspergillus sp. was the dominant fungus in 2 years of study for feed and HC. In 2014, total aflatoxins ranged from 11.6-26.4 and 11.3-23.2 µg kgG1 for feed and HC samples, respectively. The AFB1 in feed samples was between 9.5-17.9 and 7.9-18.7 µg kgG1 on 2014 and 2015, respectively. For ochratoxin A, levels ranged from 0.17-0.55 and 0.3-2.1 µg kgG1 for feed samples on 2014 and 2015, respectively. Zearalenone maximum levels were 3.4 and 1.6 µg kgG1 for 2014 and 2015, respectively. Conclusion: Climate changes were a great factor that had impacts on mycotoxigenic fungal growth, fungal count, toxin type and its amount, that impact had reflected results appeared in food safety and food security