Mycotoxin contamination in laboratory rat feeds and their implications in animal research

Abstract

Compound feed is particularly vulnerable to multi-mycotoxin contamination. A method for the determination of 12 mycotoxins; enniatins A, A1, B, B1; aflatoxins B1, B2, G1, G2; OTA; ZEA; T-2 and HT-2 by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry has been developed and applied for the analysis of laboratory rat commercial feeds. The method trueness was checked by recovery assays at three different spiked levels (n = 9). Recoveries ranged from 73% to 112%, and the intra-day and inter-day precision were lower than 9% and 13%, respectively. Limits of quantitation were lower than 15 μg/kg. Twenty-seven laboratory rats feed samples showed multi-contamination by at least three up to six different mycotoxins. ENNs B and B1, followed by ZEA were the most prevalent mycotoxins. T-2, HT-2, and OTA were not detected. ZEA showed the highest concentration levels reaching 492 μg/kg. The results underline the importance of implementing mycotoxin regular surveillance programs for laboratory animal feeds.

Keywords:

• Experimental animals
• feed
• LC-MS/MS
• method validation
• mycotoxins

Disclosure statement

The authors report no declarations of interest.

Funding

This research was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [AGL2013-43194-P]. Escrivá, L. thanks the PhD Program [BES-2014-068039] provided by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.