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Litopenaeus vannamei susceptible to low dose mycotoxins By Rui Gonçalves, Scientist Aquaculture and João Sendão, Manager of Aquaculture Center for Applied Nutrition (ACAN) at BIOMIN Mycotoxins in aquaculture feeds
2500
Mycotoxin contamination (ppb)
The awareness of mycotoxin-related issues in aquaculture has grown as feed manufacturers and producers realize the importance of mycotoxins and their potential to negatively impact production. Recent reports shows that in Asia, plant meals sourced, e.g., soybean meal, wheat, wheat bran, corn gluten meal, and rice bran, were mostly contaminated with Fusarium mycotoxins zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON) and fumonisins (FB). This contamination is later reflected in the finished feeds for shrimp and fish with values higher than 2 ppm in certain samples.
2000
1500 882
1000 500 56
36
43
ZEN
FUM
0 15 AcDON
DON
Shrimp finished feed Mycotoxin synergisms Considering that compound feed contains a mixture of several raw materials and that mycotoxigenic fungi are usually capable of producing more than one mycotoxin, it is no surprise that most finished feed would be contaminated by several mycotoxins. According to the BIOMIN Mycotoxin Survey data from 2016, shrimp feeds sampled in Southeast Asia had an average of four different mycotoxins per sample. Samples were mainly contaminated by DON, ZEN, FUM and 15-AcDON (Figure 1). In general the
Figure 1: Mycotoxin occurrence in SE Asia for shrimp commercial feeds
mycotoxins levels found in 2016 in shrimp feeds were slightly lower for ZEN and FUM when compared with contamination of same mycotoxins found in 2014, for the same region (ZEN = 60 and FB = 173 ppb). In the case of DON, the contamination found in 2016 (882 ± 1405.34 ppb) is much higher than contamination found in 2014 (DON = 161 ppb). It is important to have in mind that mycotoxins contamination pattern and levels can change considerably from year
to year—even in same region and for the same commodities due to weather conditions and other plant stressors factors. As a result, producers should regularly monitor raw commodity and finished feeds for mycotoxin contamination.
Testing vannamei sensitivity to Fusarium mycotoxins A 36-day feeding trial was conducted to