<p>During the last ten years the cultivation of maize in Sweden has increased and is expected to grow further. Most of the maize in Sweden becomes silage which is used to feed animals at farms. Maize has in other countries been shown to be a substrate for growth of mould and especially <em>Aspergillus </em>spp., <em>Fusarium </em>spp. and <em>Pencillium </em>spp. has been reported. Members of all three of these species can, during favorable conditions, produce mycotoxins which can cause a number of different health problems in both animals and man. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of mould and mycotoxins to increase our knowledge of the hygienic quality of Swedish maize silage. Microbiological analyses were made to study the growth of fungi. To analyze for fumonisin B<sub>1</sub>, B<sub>2 </sub>and zearalenone, HPLC with fluorescence detection was made. The mycotoxins mycophenolic acid, roquefortine C, gliotoxin, penicillic acid, penitrem A, fumitremorgen C and verrucologen were analyzed with LC-MS/MS. The results showed that 47 % of the samples were contaminated with <em>Penicillium </em>spp. and 6 % had growth of <em>Aspergillus fumigatus</em>. A small amount of zearalenone was found in one sample and 0.01ppm of roquefortine C was detected in one sample. The data obtained indicate that Swedish maize silage has a moderate growth of fungi with a very low production of mycotoxins. More studies have to be performed to make more decisive conclusions.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:uu-126570 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Karlsson, Mari |
| Publisher | Uppsala University, Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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