Development of an IgY-based lateral flow immunoassay for detection of fumonisin B in maize

Fumonisins are among the most prevalent mycotoxins in maize, causing substantial economic losses and potential health risks in humans and animals. In the present study, in-house polyclonal IgY antibody against fumonisin B1 (FB (1)) and B2 (FB (2)) was applied for the development of a competitive lateral flow immunoassay detecting these mycotoxins in maize grains with the limit of detection of 4000 µg/kg, which corresponds to the maximum residue limit adopted by the European Commission. To this end, factors affecting the test performance including nitrocellulose membrane type, dilution factor of maize homogenates in running buffer, amount of detection conjugate, and incubation time between detection conjugate and samples were optimized. Under the optimal condition (UniSart (®) CN140 nitrocellulose membrane, FB (1)-BSA immobilized at 1 µg/cm, 1:10 dilution factor, 436 ng of gold nanoparticle conjugate, 30 minutes of incubation), the developed test could detect both FB (1) and FB (2) in maize with limit of detection of 4000 µg/kg, and showed no cross-reactivity to deoxynivalenol, ochratoxin A, aflatoxin B1 and zearalenone. When applied to detect FB (1) and FB (2 )in naturally contaminated maize samples, results obtained from the developed assay were in good agreement with those from the high-performance liquid chromatography method. This lateral flow immunoassay is particularly suitable for screening of fumonisins in maize because of its simplicity and cost-effectiveness.