Aflatoxins in Tissues and Diets of Farmed White Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei)

Aflatoxins (AFs) are one of the most important mycotoxins due to their common occurrence in feedstuffs and feeds that pose a serious threat to humans and animals. Although many outbreaks of acute and chronic diseases have been attributed to consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated foods, the most significant effect of aflatoxin is hepatotoxicity in farm animals, especially aflatoxicosis in shrimps. In this study, Aflatoxins content in tissues and diets of white shrimp collected from farms of Helleh, Delvar, Mond, Bandar Rig sites, located in Bushehr province were determined by isocratic reverse-phase liquid chromatography (HPLC). Results showed that the highest content of aflatoxin (4.12±0.14 μg kg−1) was obtained from the food that had been used in Mond shrimp farmamong all the examined farms. Although there were negligible differences between all the groups, significant difference were found between AFG1 group and the other groups (P<0.05).Overall, the means of aflatoxins B1, B2, G1 and G2 for all shrimp samples were 0.05, ND (< LOD), 0.01 and 0.03, respectively, while they were 0.057, 0.112, 0.278, and 0.745 ppb for their corresponding diets. In conclusion, continuous aflatoxin measurement of foods is suggested to prevent the contamination of shrimp farms in Bushehr province.