**2. Mycotoxin occurrence and mycotoxicosis**

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites developed under increased temperature, humidity, aw, pH and their presence in fodder cannot be detected organoleptically. Furthermore, the differences in the conditions of production for fungi and the mycotoxins associated to them are significantly different.

In general, the favoring factors for the development of fungi and the production of mycotoxins can be divided into three main categories:


In general, with aw of 0.85 at 25°C which corresponds to approximately 14–16% humidity, fungi spores germinated within 5 to 12 days.

Moreover, the effects of mycotoxins consist of:


The symptoms are most often nonspecific, which makes the diagnostic difficult or even impossible. The difficulty in diagnosing mycotoxicoses is given as well by the occurrence of multiple mycotoxins, their uneven distribution in the fodder mass, the influence of certain factors linked to the animal, ration and climatic conditions.
