Journal ArticleDOI
Mycotoxins in food systems in Sub Saharan Africa: A review.
TLDR
The strategies under investigation to mitigate the mycotoxin problem in SSA include education of the people on the danger of consuming mouldy foods, pre and post harvest management strategies with emphasis on biological control, use of plant products to arrest fungal growth during storage, enterosorbent clay technology, and the search for traditional techniques that could reduce/detoxify mycotoxins during food processing.Abstract:
Mycotoxins, toxic secondary metabolites of fungi are now recognised as major cause of food intoxications in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). Aflatoxins, the most important of the group have been implicated in acute aflatoxicoses, carcinogenicity, growth retardation, neonatal jaundice and immunological suppression in SSA. The hot and humid tropical climate provides ideal condition for growth of toxigenicAspergillus spp, making food contamination to be widespread in SSA, with maize and groundnuts being the most contaminated. The available data suggests that cassava products (the most important African food) are not prone to aflatoxin contamination. Recent data on ochratoxin A produced by species ofAspergillus on grains have indicated the necessity for it to be monitored in SSA. Fumonisins represent the most importantFusarium mycotoxins in SSA, and surveillance data indicate very high contamination rates of almost 100% in maize samples from West Africa. Limited information exists on the occurrence of trichothecenes, while the data currently available suggest that zearalenone contamination seems not to be a problem in SSA. The strategies under investigation to mitigate the mycotoxin problem in SSA include education of the people on the danger of consuming mouldy foods, pre and post harvest management strategies with emphasis on biological control, use of plant products to arrest fungal growth during storage, enterosorbent clay technology, and the search for traditional techniques that could reduce/detoxify mycotoxins during food processing.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Aflatoxin control and prevention strategies in key crops of Sub-Saharan Africa
Kerstin Hell,Charity Mutegi +1 more
TL;DR: There is need for efficient monitoring and surveillance with cost-effective sampling and analytical methods to reduce risk of aflatoxin contamination in Africa.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mycotoxin exposure in rural residents in northern Nigeria: a pilot study using multi-urinary biomarkers.
Chibundu N. Ezekiel,Chibundu N. Ezekiel,Benedikt Warth,Isaac M. Ogara,Wilfred A. Abia,Victoria C. Ezekiel,Joseph Atehnkeng,Michael Sulyok,Paul C. Turner,G. O. Tayo,Rudolf Krska,Ranajit Bandyopadhyay +11 more
TL;DR: Overall, rural consumer populations from Nasarawa were more exposed to several mixtures of mycotoxins in their diets relative to those from Kaduna as shown by food and urine biomarker data.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mycotoxin contamination of foods in Southern Africa: A 10-year review (2007–2016)
TL;DR: This review presents an up-to-date documentation of the epidemiology of the mycotoxins in agricultural food commodities and discusses the implications on public health, current and recommended mitigation strategies, legislation, and challenges of mycotoxin research in Southern Africa.
Journal ArticleDOI
Mycotoxins in Sub-Saharan Africa: Present situation, socio-economic impact, awareness, and outlook
Patchimaporn Udomkun,Alexander Nimo Wiredu,Alexander Nimo Wiredu,Marcus Nagle,Ranajit Bandyopadhyay,Joachim Müller,Bernard Vanlauwe +6 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors have reported the occurrence of mycotoxin in human foods and animal feeds in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), mainly in the genera Aspergillus, Penicillium, and Fusarium.
Journal ArticleDOI
Assessing Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags to mitigate fungal growth and aflatoxin contamination
TL;DR: In this paper, a study was conducted to determine if storage of maize in PICS bags prevents mold growth and aflatoxin accumulation, and the results of the study demonstrate that storing maize in the bags is a viable management tool for preventing mold growth in storage.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Aflatoxin contamination of commercial maize products during an outbreak of acute aflatoxicosis in eastern and central Kenya.
Lauren Lewis,Mary T.K. Onsongo,Henry Njapau,Helen Schurz-Rogers,George Luber,Stephanie Kieszak,Jack Nyamongo,Lorraine C. Backer,Abdikher Mohamud Dahiye,Ambrose O. Misore,Kevin M. DeCock,Carol Rubin +11 more
TL;DR: A cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess the extent of market maize contamination and evaluate the relationship between market maize aflatoxin and the aflatoxicosis outbreak in rural Kenya, resulting in 317 cases and 125 deaths in April 2004.
Journal ArticleDOI
Fumonisins Disrupt Sphingolipid Metabolism, Folate Transport, and Neural Tube Development in Embryo Culture and In Vivo: A Potential Risk Factor for Human Neural Tube Defects among Populations Consuming Fumonisin-Contaminated Maize
Walter F. O. Marasas,Ronald T. Riley,Katherine A. Hendricks,Victoria L. Stevens,Thomas W. Sadler,Janee Gelineau-van Waes,Stacey A. Missmer,Julio Cabrera,Olga Torres,Wentzel C. A. Gelderblom,Jeremy C. Allegood,Carolina Martínez,Joyce Maddox,J. David Miller,Lois Starr,M. Cameron Sullards,Ana Victoria Roman,Kenneth A. Voss,Elaine Wang,Alfred H. Merrill +19 more
TL;DR: It is proposed that fumonisins are potential risk factors for NTD, craniofacial anomalies, and other birth defects arising from neural crest cells because of their apparent interference with folate utilization.
Journal ArticleDOI
Postweaning exposure to aflatoxin results in impaired child growth: a longitudinal study in Benin, West Africa.
Yun Yun Gong,Assomption Hounsa,Sharif Egal,Paul C. Turner,Anne E. Sutcliffe,Andrew J. Hall,Kitty F. Cardwell,Christopher P. Wild +7 more
TL;DR: Aflatoxin exposure during the weaning period may be critical in terms of adverse health effects in West African children, and intervention measures to reduce exposure merit investigation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Dietary aflatoxin exposure and impaired growth in young children from Benin and Togo: cross sectional study.
Yun Yun Gong,Kitty F. Cardwell,A Hounsa,S Egal,Paul C. Turner,Andrew J. Hall,Christopher P. Wild +6 more
TL;DR: Exposure to aflatoxins is assessed in relation to anthropometric measures in children in Benin and Togo, suggesting that growth and development could be critically affected.
Journal ArticleDOI
Modification of immune function through exposure to dietary aflatoxin in Gambian children.
TL;DR: The study provides evidence that sIgA in saliva may be reduced because of dietary levels of aflatoxin exposure, and confirms that children in rural Gambia are frequently exposed to high levels ofAflatoxin.
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