Download the poster

Dr. Monika Ruhland, Juliane Tischler
Bayerisches Landesamt für Gesundheit und Lebensmittelsicherheit, Dienststelle
Oberschleißheim, Germany
 
Contamination of cereals with ergot, formed by fungi of the genus Claviceps is well known. To reduce the risk of poisoning a limit in the EU of 0.1% for ergot in all feedingstuffs containing unground cereals is set. No maximum contents for ergot in feed were regulated by law for processed cereals. 

The toxic potential of ergot and consequently its impact on animal health is dependent on its alkaloid composition and content. However the content and the composition of ergot alkaloid in individual sclerotia are highly variable. Therefore the chemical analyses of individual ergot alkaloids is a more reliable indication of a potential hazard and more suitable to control exposition with ergot alkaloids than counting ergot particles.

To get an overview about the actual exposure with ergot alkaloids we examined cereals and mixed feed during the last two years.

We established a method for the detection of ergometrine, ergotamine, ergocristine, a-ergocryptine and ergocornine from feed grain and mixed feed..

Samples were extracted with a mixture of phosphoric acid and actonitrile, cleaned with a strong cation exchanger and detected by HPLC with gradient elution on a reversed phase C18 column. The content of the five ergot alkaloids ergometrine, ergotamine, a ergocryptine, ergocornine and ergocristine have been analysed in 91 feed samples (53 samples of feed grain and 38 samples of mixed feed) from Bavaria. 

Ergot alkaloids could be detected in 88 % of the samples (limit of detection: 5µg/kg each ergot alkaloid). The main part of positive samples showed ergot alkaloid contents (sum of ergometrine, ergotamine, ergocristine, aergocryptine and ergocornine) between 10 and 250 µg/kg. 
 
 
Keywords:
ergot alkaloids, mycotoxins, feed