Occurrence of Aflatoxin B1 in Animal Feed Collected from the Northeastern Area of Morocco

Abstract

The carry-over of contaminants from feed to animal products is an important issue in the animal production chain, therefore, the quality control of those animal products should include the control of the animal feed. The current study was carried out to assess the contamination levels of three types of animal feed (dairy animal feed, poultry feed, and fish feed) by Aflatoxin B1. A total of 68 animal feed samples were collected from the Northeastern Moroccan area (Tangier-Tetouan-AL Hoceima). The samples were extracted with a mixture of acetone/water. The sample extractions were filtered, diluted with phosphate-buffered saline, and applied to an immunoaffinity column. Aflatoxin B1 was eluted with methanol then analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection, after post-column photochemical derivatization. The analytical results for the level of Aflatoxin B1 in the animal feed samples revealed an average presence of 44.12% for all analyzed samples. The concentrations were between 1.02 and 13.59 µg/Kg, with a mean value of 4.08 ± 3.11 µg/Kg. The results indicated that there was a significant difference across the three types of animal feeds regarding the concentrations of Aflatoxin B1.