en تخصصي Special Original article Original article <p><font face="times new roman,times,serif" size="2"><b>Background: </b>Mycotoxins are a group of structurally diverse substances produced by a wide range of moulds. These fungal secondary metabolites, whose presence in feed is unavoidable, can impose hazards to human and animal health. Continuous concern about potential effects of mycotoxins in the human diet has led to an increasing interest in researches about fungi and mycotoxin production. The aim of this work was to assess fungal contamination of feed material manufactured in Iran with emphasis on its importance in safety of animal origin foods.<br> <b>Methods:</b> Samples included 16 poultry and 15 aquatic feed which collected from 4 and 3 factories, respectively in Markazi province, Iran, in 2012. Then, standard mould count procedure was carried out to determine fungal contamination levels in the samples. SPSS (version 16) software was applied to statistical analysis.<br> <b>Results: </b>According to the results, 6.7% of aquatic and 31.3% of poultry feed samples had fungal contamination. The mean fungal contamination level of poultry feed and aquatic feed samples were 6.4&times;10⁴&plusmn;1.12&times;10⁵ CFU/g and 1.18&times;10³&plusmn;2.77&times;10³CFU/g, respectively.<br> <b>Conclusion: </b>This study showed a need for control of fungal contamination in aquatic and poultry feed in Iran. The condition of poultry feed is more problematic than that of aquatic feed, indicating a need to more local work to have least fungal contamination. </font></p> Animal Feed, Food Contamination, Mycotoxins, Food safety, Iran 81 84 http://jfqhc.ssu.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-1-32&slc_lang=en&sid=1 M. Parviz No Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Saveh Branch, Islamic Azad University, Saveh, Iran N. Vakili Saatloo No Department of Food Safety and Hygiene, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran M. Rezaei Rezaei_m@alumnus.tums.ac.ir Yes Department of Food Safety and Hygiene, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran I. Rezapor No Department of Food Hygiene and Safety, School of Health, Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences, Yazd, Iran A. Assadi No Department of Environmental Health, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran