Co-occurrence of mycotoxins in stored maize from southern and southwestern Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

Maize grain samples collected from 129 small-scale farmers’ stores in southern and southwestern Ethiopia were analysed by LC-MS/MS for a total of 218 mycotoxins and other fungal metabolites of which 15% were regulated mycotoxins. Mycotoxins produced by Penicillium, Aspergillus, and Fusarium accounted for 31%, 17%, and 12% of the metabolites, respectively. Most of the current samples were contaminated by masked and/or emerging mycotoxins with moniliformin being the most prevalent one, contaminating 93% of the samples. Each sample was co-contaminated by 3 to 114 mycotoxins/fungal metabolites. Zearalenone, fumonisin B1, and deoxynivalenol were the dominant mycotoxins, occurring in 78%, 61%, and 55% of the samples with mean concentrations of 243, 429, and 530 µg/kg, respectively. The widespread co-occurrence of several mycotoxins in the samples may pose serious health risks due to synergistic/additional effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethiopia
• LC-MS/MS
• maize
• metabolites
• toxigenic fungi

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Ethiopian Ministry of Education and European Union for financing the research work. Technical assistants at the crop protection laboratories of Hawassa and Jimma Universities are acknowledged for assistance during sample preparation and laboratory analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its supplementary material.

Additional information

Funding

This work was co-funded by the Ministry of Education, Ethiopia, and the EU H2020 EWA-BELT project [862848] “Linking East and West African farming systems experience into a BELT of sustainable intensification.”