Aflatoxins and heavy metals in animal feed in Iran.

The occurrence of aflatoxin (aflatoxin B1, aflatoxin B2, aflatoxin G1 (AFG1) and aflatoxin G2 (AFG2)) and heavy metal (Pb, Cd, As and Hg) contamination was determined in 40 industrially produced animal feed samples which were collected from the southwest of Iran. The results indicated that 75% of samples were contaminated by four aflatoxins and the level of AFB1 and sum of aflatoxins were higher than the permissible maximum levels in Iran (5 and 20 µg kg(-1), respectively) in all feed samples. A positive correlation was found between four types of aflatoxins in all the tested samples (p < 0.01) and the positive correlation between AFG1 and AFG2 was significant (r(2) = 0.708). All feed samples had lead concentrations lower than the maximum EU limit, while 5%, 17% and 42.5% of feed samples had As, Cd and Hg concentrations higher than the maximum limits, respectively.