Mycotoxins: Their implications for human and animal health

Mycotoxins contaminate various feed and food commodities, due to the global occurrence of toxinogenic molds. They exert adverse health effects in huma n and animals. The nature of these toxic effects varies depending on the ch emical structure of the toxin, The degree of these adverse effects is not o nly determined by the toxin concentration present in foods and feeds, but a lso by the time of exposure. Whilst in animals, next to acute intoxication, losses in productivity, reduced weight gain and immunosuppression are cons idered as most important feature of mycotoxicoses, genotoxic effects and th e involvement of certain mycotoxins such as aflatoxin, ochratoxins and fumo nisins in the etiology of human cancers have obtained particular attention. This implies that recent research activities concentrate on mechanistic as pects of mycotoxin-induced pathologies, rather than compiling analytical me asures of mycotoxin concentrations in food and feeds.