Verification of the Feed Safety Used Locally in Fish Aquaculture farms

Abstract

Fish industries in Egypt depend on both local and imported feed ingredients, which can be exposed to fungal contamination during the transportation stages, during processing, or during the period of storage in the Egyptian market and within farms. Furthermore, feed storage in addition to environmental factors may increase fungal growth in feed, and this, in turn, results in mycotoxin production which has been identified as a worldwide feed safety issue. This may lead to continuous exposure of animals to mycotoxins resulting in losses to the fish industry in the form of increased mortality and decreased production. The awareness of mycotoxin problems in aquaculture farms must be developed to minimize the negative impact of mycotoxins on the performance and health of exposed fish. Moreover, the risk for consumers should be also being addressed as mycotoxin residues may accumulate in fish tissues. Therefore, the present thesis was concerned with assessing the quality and safety of processed feeds used locally in fish farming during the study period, with the aim of providing sufficient information on the levels of contamination of those feeds with fungi and mycotoxins