Determination And Detoxification of Aflatoxins in Cattle Feed Samples Collected from Local Areas of Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

Aflatoxins are naturally occurring toxic metabolites produced by fungi in various food crops. The current study is aimed to determine the level of aflatoxins in cattle feed samples and evaluation of different methods of detoxification. A total of 80 samples including 40 fresh feed samples (20 Wanda and 20 Makai) and 40 dry feed samples (10 samples of Dana, 10 samples of Chokhar, 10 samples Of Toori, 3 samples of Khal, and 7 samples of Makai Dana) were collected from 22 different areas of Lahore, Pakistan. The technique used was Thin Layer Chromatography (TLC). After the detection process, detoxification was done by using physical (heating at 120℃ and boiling), chemical methods (10% Citric Acid, 10 % Acetic Acid, 2 % Sodium Hydroxide, and Hydrochloric acid), and biological methods (mustard oil and black seed oil). Among all the samples, 9 samples of Wanda, 7 samples of Makai, 3 samples of Khal, 2 samples of Dana, and 2 samples of Chokhar were found contaminated and only 6.25 % of samples were beyond the permissible range i.e., 20ppb according to USFDA. In detoxification studies, the highest percentage of reduction was observed in Khal by chemical method at 63.64% however, physical and biological methods showed 23.91 % and 35.72 % respectively.

Keywords

• Aflatoxin
• cattle feed
• contamination
• detection
• detoxification