Survey of T-2 and HT-2 toxins in soybean and soy meal from Argentina using immunoaffinity clean-up and high performance liquid chromatography

BARROS, G.; GARCÍA, D.; OVIEDO, M.S.; RAMIREZ, M.L.; TORRES, A.; LATTANZIO, V.; PASCALE, M.; CHULZE, S.

World Mycotoxin Journal

Wageningen Academic Publishers

Lugar: Wageningen; Año: 2011 vol. 4 p. 189 - 197

1875-0710

Soybean and soy meal samples collected during the harvest season 2008-2009 in the soybean-growing area of Córdoba Province in Argentina were analyzed for T-2 and HT-2 toxins occurrence. These mycotoxins were detected using HPLC analysis with fluorescence detection after derivatization with 1-anthronylnitrile and immunoaffinity column clean-up. Characteristics of in-house validated method such as accuracy, precision, detection and quantification limits were defined by means of recovery test with spiked soybean and soy meal samples. Mean recoveries for T-2 within the spiking range 125-500 µg/kg, were 90.9 and 81.3% for soybean and soy meal, respectively with a within-laboratory relative standard deviation < 10%. Analysis of samples spiked with HT-2 in the same range gave a mean recovery of 70.2 and 77.5% for soybean and soy meal, respectively, with relative standard deviations < 12%. The limit of detection (LOD) for the method was 25 µg/kg for T-2 and HT-2, based on a signal-to-noise ratio 3:1 and the limit of quantification (LOQ) was established as three times the detection limit. Out of 64 samples, only two soybean samples showed contamination with A-type trichothecenes evaluated. Confirmatory analyses of the contaminated samples were performed by LC-MS/MS. This study demonstrated low incidences and levels of T-2 and HT-2 in soybean harvested among the areas in the Cordoba Province.