Emerging Fusarium and Alternaria mycotoxins gain more and more interest due to their frequent contamination of food and feed, although in vivo toxicity and toxicokinetic data are limited. Whereas the Fusarium mycotoxins beauvericin, moniliformin and enniatins particularly contaminate grain and grain-based products, Alternaria mycotoxins are also detected in fruits, vegetables and wines. Although contamination levels are usually low (µg/kg range), higher contamination levels of enniatins and tenuazonic acid may occasionally occur. In vitro studies suggest genotoxic effects of enniatins A, A1 and B1, beauvericin, moniliformin, alternariol, alternariol monomethyl ether, altertoxins and stemphyltoxin-III. Furthermore, in vitro studies suggest immunomodulating effects of most emerging toxins and a reproductive health hazard of alternariol, beauvericin and enniatin B. More in vivo toxicity data on the individual and combined effects of these contaminants on reproductive and immune system in both humans and animals is needed to update the risk evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority. Taking into account new occurrence data for tenuazonic acid, the complete oral bioavailability, the low total body clearance in pigs and broiler chickens and the limited toxicity data, a health risk cannot be completely excluded. Besides, some less known Alternaria toxins, especially the genotoxic altertoxins and stemphyltoxin III, should be incorporated in risk evaluation as well.

The Fusarium mycotoxin enniatin B (ENN B) is a so-called emerging mycotoxin frequently contaminating poultry feed. To investigate the impact of chronic ENN B exposure on animal health, broiler chickens were fed either a diet naturally contaminated with ENN B (2352 µg/kg) or a control diet (135 µg/kg) for 2, 7, 14, or 21 days. ENN B concentrations were determined in plasma and liver using a validated ultra-high performance liquid chromatography—tandem mass spectrometry UHPLC-MS/MS method. Liver was evaluated histologically, and the villus length and crypt depth of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum were measured. Histopathology of the livers did not reveal major abnormalities. Feeding an ENN B-contaminated diet could possibly inhibit the proliferation of enterocytes in the duodenal crypts, but did not affect villus length, crypt depth, or villus length-crypt depth ratio of the jejunum and ileum. ENN B levels in plasma and liver were significantly higher in the ENN B-fed group and ranged between <25–264 pg/mL and <0.05–0.85 ng/g, respectively. ENN B carry-over rates from feed to liver tissue were 0.005–0.014% and 0.034–0.109% in the ENN B and control group, respectively. Carry-over rates were low and indicated a limited contribution of poultry tissue-derived products to the total dietary ENN B intake for humans. The above results support the opinion of the European Food Safety Authority stating that adverse health effects from ENN B in broiler chickens are unlikely.