The prevalence of fungal and mycotoxin contamination of poultry feeds from South Africa

M.Tech. (Biotechnology)Abstract: Animal feeds are one of the main components in ensuring food safety, abundant food availability, maintaining the economy and achieving good health standards for both humans and animals. The rapid growth of poultry demand globally has resulted in poultry industry having to produce a wide range of poultry products. Consequently, leaving the poultry industry with a high demand of poultry feed to maintain production. Animal feeds are produced from various agricultural commodities, which are very often contaminated with fungi and their secondary metabolites including mycotoxins. Fungi and mycotoxins contaminate poultry feeds either via the use of contaminated raw materials during feed formulation or the final product, especially in cases where there is inappropriate management of compounded feeds. Hence, the quality of feed requires regular inspection throughout feed storage. This study was conducted with an aim to examine the safety levels of South African poultry feeds with regards to fungal and mycotoxin contamination. One-hundred and five samples consisting of 7 broiler starters, 18 broiler growers, 12 broiler finishers, 15 broiler breeders, 8 broiler layers and 45 broiler free range poultry feeds collected from five selected provinces, i.e., Gauteng (45), Kwazulu-Natal (26), Eastern Cape (5), Western Cape (17) and North West (12) of South Africa (SA) were screened for fungal contamination by conventional method followed by DNA sequencing. Generally, data on the mycobiota of poultry feeds revealed that average fungal load for broiler free range, grower, layer, finishers, starter, and breeder feeds were 5.0 x 104, 4.0 x 104, 1.9 x 104, 1.7 x 104, 4.5 x 103, and 2.9 x 103 CFU/g, respectively. A total of 340 fungal isolates were identified with the most dominant species belonging to the genera of Aspergillus (112 isolates), followed by Penicillium (53 isolates) and Fusarium (49 isolates). The less dominant species from other genera (126 isolates) that were mostly isolated belong to Cladosporium, Moniliella, Epicoccum, Eurotium, Acreminium and Alternaria. Aspergillus fumigatus was the most frequent species followed by A. flavus and A. niger. Fusarium proliferatum and F. verticillioides were also isolated at a higher frequency. The most common Penicillium spp. were P. aurantiogriseum, P. corylophilum, P. griseofulvum, P. janthinellum and P. implicatum..