Muhammad Imran1,2,3,4,*, Shengbo Cao1,2,3, Shengfeng Wan5, Zheng Chen6,7, Muhammad Kashif Saleemi4, Ning Wang8. Muhammad Noman Naseem4,9 and Jawad Munawar10
1Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine in Hubei Province, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University (HZAU), Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China. 2State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, HZAU, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China. 3The Cooperative Innovation Center for Sustainable Pig Production, HZAU, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China. 4Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. 5Department of Nephrology, Henan Provincial Key Laboratory of Kidney Diseases and Immunology, Henan provincial People’s Hospital, Zhengzhou 450003, China. 6Key Laboratory for Animal Health of Jiangxi Province, Nanchang 330045, Jiangxi, China. 7Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Animal Science and Technology, Jiangxi Agricultural University, Nanchang 330045, Jiangxi, China. 8School of Bioengineering, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering, Zigong, China 9Centre for Animal Science, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), The University of Queensland, Australia. 10Government Poultry Farm Sargodha, Department of Livestock and Dairy Development, Punjab, Pakistan.
*Corresponding author: mimran448@yahoo.com; dr.mimran@uaf.edu.pk
Fungal contamination of crops and production of toxic secondary metabolites (mycotoxins) are the inevitable issues throughout the world, mainly in the developing countries. These toxins associated with adverse effects on animals, humans and crops, result in health issues and economic losses. The major mycotoxins that have agro-economic importance are aflatoxins, fumonisins, ochratoxins, zearalenone and trichothecenes. These toxins are produced by different types of molds that contaminate crops under favorable conditions and become the part of animal and human diet. Several studies have described their hepatotoxic, nephrotoxic, carcinogenic, immunosuppressive, toxigenic and mutagenic characteristics, and most mycotoxins represent a considerable risk to animal and human life. Compound stomach animals show some resistance against mycotoxicosis as compared to monogastric animals due to capability of rumen microbiota to degrade mycotoxins. The adverse effects of mycotoxins in humans include hepatocellular carcinoma, Reye's syndrome, Balkan endemic nephropathy (BEN), immunosuppression, abdominal pain, neural tube defects, infertility and retarded growth in children. This review describes different types of mycotoxins and their adverse effects on animal species and humans by keeping in mind the One-Health aspect.