The presence of potentially toxigenic fungi in poultry feed

Abstract

In Serbia, commercial feedstuffs are an important component in modern animal husbandry, but there is no information available about fungal contamination. Because of that the aim of this study was to determine the mycoflora incidence in poultry feeds. A total of 230 samples of poultry feeds were examined for total fungi count and the presence of potential toxigenic fungi genera. Total fungi count were 1-9 x 104 CFU g-1 in the most of investigated poultry feed samples (38.26%). The most prevalent fungi genera were Fusarium (56.09%) and Aspergillus (54.35%), followed by Rhizopus (40%), Penicillium (30.87%), Mucor (30.04%) and the least frequency species were from genus Alternaria (3.48%).