Detection of Fungi Producing Aflatoxin B1 and Ochratoxin A in Poultry Feed in Anbar Governorate

The study was conducted at the Department of Plant Protection, College of Agriculture, Anbar University to detect toxigenic fungi contaminating poultry feed and the concentrations of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and ochratoxin A (OTA) in them. The results showed the feed contaminated with various fungi, the most prevalent being Aspergillus spp at 57%, followed by Penicillium spp, Fusarium spp, and Mucor spp at 26, 9 and 3%, respectively. Colorimetric analysis on thin layer chromatography (TLC) plates revealed that isolates producing AFB1 formed 66.66% of the total number of isolates while it was 100% for OTA. AFB1 detection in poultry samples showed that the highest concentration of the toxin was in samples from the city of Hit at 50-120 ppb, 30-75 ppb in those from Saqlawiyah, and 40-60 ppb in samples from Fallujah and Al-Qa`im city. As for OTA, the results showed lower contamination levels than for AFB1 at 45-50 ppb in samples from the city of Al-Karmah, and 30-40 ppb in Ramadi and Al-Qa`im.  Samples from Fallujah city recorded the lowest OTA concentration at 30-40 ppb while none was detected in feed samples from the city of Saqlawiyah, Hit, and Ana