Twenty-Eight Fungal Secondary Metabolites Detected in Pig Feed Samples: Their Occurrence, Relevance and Cytotoxic Effects In Vitro

Feed samples are frequently contaminated by a wide range of chemically diverse natural products, which can be determined using highly sensitive analytical techniques. Next to already well-investigated mycotoxins, unknown or unregulated fungal secondary metabolites have also been found, some of which at significant concentrations. In our study, 1141 pig feed samples were analyzed for more than 800 secondary fungal metabolites using the same LC-MS/MS method and ranked according to their prevalence. Effects on the viability of the 28 most relevant were tested on an intestinal porcine epithelial cell line (IPEC-J2). The most frequently occurring compounds were determined as being cyclo-(L-Pro-L-Tyr), moniliformin, and enniatin B, followed by enniatin B1, aurofusarin, culmorin, and enniatin A1. The main mycotoxins, deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, were found only at ranks 8 and 10. Regarding cytotoxicity, apicidin, gliotoxin, bikaverin, and beauvericin led to lower IC(50) values, between 0.52 and 2.43 µM, compared to deoxynivalenol (IC(50) = 2.55 µM). Significant cytotoxic effects were also seen for the group of enniatins, which occurred in up to 82.2% of the feed samples. Our study gives an overall insight into the amount of fungal secondary metabolites found in pig feed samples compared to their cytotoxic effects in vitro.