Abstract:
Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites and toxic substances secreted by microscopic fungi or molds. They are known mainly because of the poisoning they cause in animals and humans following the consumption of contaminated food. More than 300 secondary metabolites have been identified, but only 30 have real toxic properties of concern.
Our work focused on the study of the toxicity of molds of the genus Penicillium, Aspergillus and Alternaria, isolated from two species of aquaculture fish namely: The sea bream "Sparus aurata" and sea bass "Dicentrarchus labrax". We used the Artemia salina larval acute toxicity test, which is a sensitive and reliable test, low cost and easy to implement. Because of its broad spectrum of detection, it is a good test for toxicity screening, and in particular, it is very suitable for the detection of mycotoxins. This is why we used it to study the toxicity of metabolites produced by fungi isolated from the marine environment, which is all the more interesting because A. salina is also a marine organism.
For further study, we determined the median lethal concentration (CL50) of strains previously selected as potentially toxic.
