993 PROCESSING, PRODUCTS, AND FOOD SAFETY 2010 Poultry Science 89:993–1001 doi:10.3382/ps.2009-00019 Key words: aflatoxin, poultry litter, poultry feed ABSTRACT Aflatoxins (AF) are toxic fungal second- ary metabolites and are known mycotoxins pathologi- cal to animals and humans. Poultry litter is frequently used as a food supplement for ruminants, and when poultry feed contains AF, the litter becomes contami- nated as well, thus having an effect on livestock health. This study identified and quantified AF (AFB 1 , AFB 2 , AFG 1 , and AFG 2 ) from poultry feed and their recovery, together with their metabolites (AFM 1 , AFM 2 , AFP 1 , and aflatoxicol) in litter. An experiment with 25 Hy- Line W-36 hens, in their second production stage, 121 wk old, was carried out. Hens were distributed in 3 groups placed in individual cages and 1 ration of 250 g of feed was given to each hen daily. Nine hens of the con- trol group were fed with clean feed, without AFB 1 ; the other 2 experimental groups, with 8 hens each, were fed with 2 AFB 1 concentrations: 30 and 500 μg·kg -1 . The feed was replaced and weighed daily throughout a 7-d period to register the amount of feed consumed by the hens. Litter from each hen was collected, weighed, and dried individually. The chemical analysis of 40 g of each one of the 200 feed and 200 litter samples was chemical- ly extracted and concentrated with immunoaffinity col- umns for total AF. To quantify AF, calibration curves for each AF were done by HPLC. Feed samples of the 3 groups presented significant difference with AFB 2 and AFG 2 , whereas in litter samples, there were significant differences for AFG 2 in the 500 μg·kg -1 group. Poultry litter had traces of AFM 1 , AFM 2 , AFP 1 , and AFL with no significant differences among treatments. Aflatoxin B 1 prevalence in litter samples can cause damages in livestock because this mycotoxin reduces the digestibil- ity of ruminant feed up to 67%. Identification and quantification of aflatoxins and aflatoxicol from poultry feed and their recovery in poultry litter G. Cortés,* M. Carvajal,* 1 I. Méndez-Ramírez,† E. Ávila-González,‡ N. Chilpa-Galván,* P. Castillo-Urueta,* and C. M. Flores§ *Departamento de Botánica, Instituto de Biología, and †Departamento de Estadística, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matemáticas Aplicadas y Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), Ciudad Universitaria, Delegación Coyoacán, México, Distrito Federal 04510, México; ‡Centro de Enseñanza, Investigación y Extensión en Producción Avícola (CEIEPAv) de la Facultad de Medicina Veterinaria y Zootecnia, UNAM, México, Distrito Federal 13209, México; and §Unidad de Biotecnología y Prototipos, FES-Iztacala, UNAM, Tlalnepantla, Estado de México 54090, México INTRODUCTION Aflatoxins (AF) are bisdihydrofuran coumarins with well known physicochemical properties (Chang et al., 1963; Hartley et al., 1963; Asao et al., 1965; Holzapfel et al., 1966; Dalezios et al., 1971), which usually con- taminate cereal grains that are the base of balanced poultry and livestock feed. Aflatoxins can pass to the by-products of poultry and livestock such as egg, meat, and milk, therefore having a negative effect on human health (Trucksess and Stoloff, 1981; Trucksess et al., 1983). The fungi that synthesize AF in their metabo- lism are mainly Aspergillus flavus Link ex Fries and Aspergillus parasiticus Speare (Diener and Davis, 1987), although other species such as Aspergillus nidulans are known to synthesize sterigmatocystin, a precursor of AF (Sweeney and Dobson, 1999). Mexican and US legislations have established a maxi- mum tolerance level of AF of 20 μg·kg -1 for laying hen feed (Hamilton and Garlich, 1971; Wolzak et al., 1985), and trading of poultry products is regulated by inter- national laws. Aflatoxins are metabolized, biotransformed, and stored in poultry organs mainly in the liver (Gregory and Manley, 1982), gizzard, breast, and eggs (Trucksess et al., 1983; Wolzak et al., 1985; Oliveira et al., 2000), but not all AF are assimilated and some traces are excreted in the litter. Aflatoxins can damage animal organs such as mucous membranes, digestive tract, and Received January 12, 2009. Accepted February 13, 2010. 1 Corresponding author: magdac@servidor.unam.mx ©2010 Poultry Science Association Inc. at UNAM Direccion General de Bibliotecas on May 26, 2016 http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from