Occurence of fusarium mycotoxins in wheat from Europe - a review

Abstract

The quality of cereals is very important for both human and animal nutrition. Fusarium mycotoxins include a great number of compounds. Trichothecenes, zearalenone (ZEN) and fumonisins are the major Fusarium mycotoxins occurring in cereal grains, animal feeds and forages. Conditions that predispose to mycotoxin production by Fusarium species include humidity, temperature, aeration and substrate type. Even if a great number of fungal metabolites have been designated as mycotoxins, a small number are known to have significant animal/human health and economic significance. For this, the world-wide impact of mycotoxins on human and animal health is likely underestimated and the future in this area is to identify additional specific biomarkers and group of biomarkers that can be used to establish the exposition of human and animals to individual mycotoxins.