2.2.3. Study of the Effect of Mycotoxins on *Lactobacillus* Cell Count

As mycotoxins cause serious health damage to higher organisms, the question arises, whether they have a negative effect on bacteria, too. So the possible changes in bacterial counts were also studied in the presence of mycotoxins. For the experiment, three *Lactobacillus* strains from different genera were selected. It was observed that neither AFB1 nor ST at the studied concentration of 0.2 µg/mL caused a significant reduction (*p* > 0.5 for AFB1 and *p* > 0.4 for ST) in the bacterial count compared to the control Figure 3).

**Figure 3.** The effect of aflatoxin B1 (**A**) and sterigmatocystin (**B**) at concentration 0.2 µg/mL on the cell count *L. pentosus* TV3, *L. paracasei* MA2, *L. plantarum* TS23 (control-white, with mycotoxin-blue). (means±standard deviation, N = 3) (logN means the logarithm of the number of colonies forming units per ml of bacterial cell suspension).
