A French monitoring programme for determining ochratoxin A occurrence in pig kidneys.
Ochratoxin A is a carcinogen and nephrotoxin which can enter the food chain resulting in human exposure. As pig herds are exposed to ochratoxin A through their feed, their kidneys, livers and pork meat are considered as a possible route of exposure for humans. France, an important producer of pork and pork products, set up a national monitoring programme which included the training of six routine public laboratories in the analysis of ochratoxin A using an immunoaffinity step followed by a HPLC-fluorimetric detection. The programme randomly sampled 300 healthy and 100 nephropathic pig kidneys in 1997 and 710 healthy pig kidneys in 1998. Less than 10% of samples were significantly contaminated by ochratoxin A : in the 1997 survey, 1% of samples contained 0.40-1.40 microg kg(-1) of ochratoxin A and in the 1998 survey 7.6 % exhibited ochratoxin A levels in the range 0.5-5 microg kg(-1). In the case of nephropathic kidneys, only traces of ochratoxin A (0.16 to 0.48 microg kg(-1)) were detected in six samples out of 100. Even if not a major route of exposure for humans, pigs are clearly exposed to this mycotoxin and monitoring of pork products and of feed for swine is necessary.
Dragacci
S
S
Microbial Toxins Unit, French Agency for Food Safety (AFSSA) Paris, France. s.dragacci@paris.afssa.fr
Grosso
F
F
Bire
R
R
Fremy
J M
JM
Coulon
S
S
D000818:Animals; D002273:Carcinogens / Q000032:analysis*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000032:analysis* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005602:France; D007668:Kidney / Q000737:chemistry*; D007674:Kidney Diseases / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D007753:Laboratories; D009183:Mycotoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D009793:Ochratoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence; D013552:Swine
D002273:Carcinogens; D009183:Mycotoxins; D009793:Ochratoxins; C025589:ochratoxin A