**1. Introduction**

Agricultural and Food commodities are highly susceptible to fungal growth in pre and postharvest conditions as well as during storage. Different types of fungi especially belonging to the genus Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium and Claviceps grow in crops, food and feed items throughout the world in favorable environmental conditions that ultimately produce a variety of toxins known as "Mycotoxins". The existence of more than one mycotoxin in food commodities is referred to as "Co-occurrence". Prominent mycotoxins occurring in agricultural

© 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

commodities, include: aflatoxins (AFLA), ochratoxin A (OTA), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisins (FUM) and T-toxin (T-2).

conditions like temperature & humidity. The diversity of fungi species grown on food products under various ecological conditions were observed that produce particular mycotoxins but it can occur singly or in multiple (co-occurrence). The co-occurrence of mycotoxins can affect both the production of mycotoxin and the toxicity of the contaminated material. Mycotoxins risk not only threatens the people living in tropical climate countries but it also be hazardous

Co-Occurrence of Mycotoxins and Its Detoxification Strategies

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During the last 10 years, incidence of multiple mycotoxins (AFLA, OTA, ZEN, DON and FUM) produced by different fungal species particularly Fusarium and Aspergillus genus have been reported in cereals from different countries [11–19]. Natural co-occurrence of mycotoxins in cereal-based infant products was also observed from Tunisia, where 32% samples were detected contaminated with multiple mycotoxins [20]. It was noticed that Fusarium fungal species can produce different mycotoxins simultaneously, and their co-occurrence became an important issue in the past years for risk assessment [21–23], these multiple toxins can have

Global occurrence of mycotoxins in cereals and processed food products indicated that five major mycotoxins namely AFLA, OTA, ZEN, DON, FUM are mostly found during the past 10 years in these food stuffs. FUM mycotoxins were maximally detected (61%) in these cereals and processed foods, DON were identified in 58% samples and AFLA were noticed in 55% samples. However, contamination of ZEN and OTA in these food items were 46% and 29%, respectively [26]. It was also noticed that contamination of mycotoxins in processed food products were relatively less than the cereal grains. More than one mycotoxin can be produced by single of numerous fungal species and it may found in different combinations in food stuffs

which may exert additive, antagonistic and synergistic effect in animals and humans.

Multiple occurrence (co-occurrence) of mycotoxins in European region revealed that AFLA and OTA mycotoxins were mostly found (24%) whereas the prevalence of other mycotoxins was comparatively less (Approx. 10%). Similarly, the co-occurrence of AFLA and OTA was highly detected (35%) in African countries and the occurrence of other combinations was comparatively fewer (29%). Conversely, in Asia FUM and AFLA combination was highly noticed (78%) and the prevalence of similar combination (FUM +AFLA) was found (50%) in South America, while FUM +ZEA was second most observed combination (25%) among other mycotoxins. In short, co-occurrence of AFLA and FUM mycotoxins was highly observed in Asia, Africa and South America [1, 15, 27–44]. Co-occurrence of different mycotoxins was noted in Solvak and observed the highest correlation between DON and Nivalenol toxins. On the other hand, no correlation between ZEA and

According to the latest Biomin mycotoxin Survey (2016), DON and FUM are the most commonly found mycotoxins in feedstuffs, analyzed in 4027 animal feed samples and feed ingredients collected from >50 countries. The major food items collected in this survey include corn, wheat, barley, rice, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, dried distillers grains (DDGS) and

Out of all samples, DON were detected in 73%, FUM were found 64 and 53% samples were contaminated by ZEN. Whereas, contamination of AFLA were detected in 25%, T-2 toxins in

18 and 12% samples were found contaminated with OTA, shown in **Figure 1**.

for people of temperate climates countries like United States of America and Europe.

additive, antagonist or synergic effects [24, 25].

DON was noticed [45].

silage, that are used in feed among others [46].

Foodstuffs are very prone to contaminants like bacteria and fungi in the pre-harvest and postharvest stages especially, during storage when executed in poor conditions. These facts could be a cause of mycotoxins contamination in feeds and foods that pose serious health threat to animals and humans. Exposure of mycotoxins is a worldwide concern due to the globalization of food trade and its toxic nature. Some of these mycotoxins have hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic, immunosuppressive, genotoxic, teratogenic, and/or carcinogenic effects in human and animals. Consequently, mycotoxins have been a major concern of food regulatory authorities in all over the world about its exposure and hazardous nature in human and animals. Occurrence of multiple mycotoxins (co-occurrence) now gains much attention worldwide owing to its more toxic capacity (synergistic) as compared to single mycotoxin. According to the Biomin mycotoxins survey of 2015, more than 50% contaminated samples contained multiple mycotoxins in food and feed. Furthermore, co-occurrence of multiple mycotoxins increased from 2015 to 2016 and risk of mycotoxins is more heightened in Asia comparatively to other continents because of the favorable environmental conditions [1]. Frequency of mycotoxins produced by Fusarium fungal species comprising DON, FUM, ZEN are more frequent and co-occurrence of these mycotoxins can result severe detrimental impacts. The prevalence of mycotoxins in animal feed are associated with lower performance, poor growth, health and reproductive issues and higher medical costs for both animals and humans. Foods of animal origin are essential part of normal diet of everybody therefore; there is a need to assess cooccurrence of mycotoxins in animal feed and its counteracting strategies.

The worldwide contamination of agricultural commodities (crops, foods and feeds) with mycotoxins is a global concern that poses huge threat to animals and humans health. Contamination of foods by multiple mycotoxins not only has negative impact on health but also for global food security. Animal ingestion of contaminated feed with a variety of mycotoxins can result extensive damage to the liver, kidney and even induce cancer.

Mycotoxin contamination occurs widely in feedstuffs of plant origin, especially in cereals, seeds, fruits, fodder, agricultural feed or food intended for animal or human consumption [2–6]. Human beings are exposed by the effects of these toxins when used the foods of animal origin like milk, meat and eggs [7]. Furthermore, mycotoxins lead to massive economic losses, including loss of livestock production, loss of forage crops and feeds, and loss of human and animal life [8]. At the moment, different mycotoxins have been identified globally, and food regulatory authorities focused mainly on the potent and frequently present mycotoxins that have proven lethal. In continent Asia, ZEA, DON and FUM mycotoxins produced by fungal specie Fusarium are frequently present in animal feed elicit great health concerns to animals and humans due to their toxic effects [9, 10].
