TY - JOUR T1 - Risks for animal health related to the presence of zearalenone and its modified forms in feed JF - EFSA Journal Y1 - 2017 A1 - Helle-Katrine Knutsen A1 - Jan Alexander A1 - Lars Barregård A1 - Margherita Bignami A1 - Beat Brüschweiler A1 - Sandra Ceccatelli A1 - Bruce Cottrill A1 - Michael Dinovi A1 - Lutz Edler A1 - Bettina Grasl-Kraupp A1 - Christer Hogstrand A1 - Laurentius Hoogenboom A1 - Carlo Stefano Nebbia A1 - Annette Petersen A1 - Martin Rose A1 - Alain-Claude Roudot A1 - Tanja Schwerdtle A1 - Christiane Vleminckx A1 - Günter Vollmer A1 - Heather Wallace A1 - Chiara Dall'Asta A1 - Sven Dänicke A1 - Eriksen, Gunnar-Sundstøl A1 - Andrea Altieri A1 - Ruth Roldán-Torres A1 - Isabelle P Oswald KW - animal health risk assessment KW - exposure KW - feed KW - metabolites KW - modified forms KW - toxicity KW - Zearalenone AB -

Abstract Zearalenone (ZEN), a mycotoxin primarily produced by Fusarium fungi, occurs predominantly in cereal grains. The European Commission asked EFSA for a scientific opinion on the risk to animal health related to ZEN and its modified forms in feed. Modified forms of ZEN occurring in feed include phase I metabolites α-zearalenol (α-ZEL), ?-zearalenol (?-ZEL), α-zearalanol (α-ZAL), ?-zearalanol (?-ZAL), zearalanone (ZAN) and phase II conjugates. ZEN has oestrogenic activity and the oestrogenic activity of the modified forms of ZEN differs considerably. For ZEN, the EFSA Panel on Contaminants in the Food Chain (CONTAM) established no observed adverse effect levels (NOAELs) for pig (piglets and gilts), poultry (chicken and fattening turkeys), sheep and fish (extrapolated from carp) and lowest observed effect level (LOAEL) for dogs. No reference points could be established for cattle, ducks, goats, horses, rabbits, mink and cats. For modified forms, no reference points could be established for any animal species and relative potency factors previously established from rodents by the CONTAM Panel in 2016 were used. The dietary exposure was estimated on 17,706 analytical results with high proportions of left-censored data (ZEN about 60%, ZAN about 70%, others close to 100%). Samples for ZEN were collected between 2001 and 2015 in 25 different European countries, whereas samples for the modified forms were collected mostly between 2013 and 2015 from three Member States. Based on exposure estimates, the risk of adverse health effects of feed containing ZEN was considered extremely low for poultry and low for sheep, dog, pig and fish. The same conclusions also apply to the sum of ZEN and its modified forms.

VL - 15 SN - 1831-4732 CP - 7 M3 - doi: 10.2903/j.efsa.2017.4851 ER -