Aflatoxin B1 binding to sorbents in bovine ruminal fluid

A recent approach to the problem of contamination of agricultural products by aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is to add non-nutritionally adsorbents to animal diets in order to sequester ingested aflatoxins. We conducted in vitro experiments to develop a rapid and cheap model using ruminal fluid to assess the ability of sorbent materials to bind AFB1. Seven sorbents (hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate, clinoptilolite, zeolite, two types of bentonite, sepiolite and PHIL 75), commonly added to bovine diet, were incubated in water and ruminal fluid in the presence of AFB1. Hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate, sepiolite and one of the bentonites bound 100% of the AFB1 in the presence of both ruminal fluid and water; clinoptilolite bound about 80% of AFB1 in both liquids; whereas the affinities for the mycotoxin of zeolite (50%) and the other sample of bentonite (60%) in water seem to be increased by about 40% in ruminal fluid incubations. PHIL 75 had the poorest binding ability: about 30% in water and 45% in ruminal fluid. In view of the differences in toxin binding in water and ruminal fluid, it is preferable to use the ruminal fluid model for the in vitro pre-screening of sorbent materials potentially useful as adjuvants to ruminant feeds.