Aflasafe SN01 is the First Biocontrol Product Approved for Aflatoxin Mitigation in Two Nations, Senegal and The Gambia

Abstract

Aflatoxin contamination is caused by Aspergillus flavus and closely related fungi. In The Gambia, aflatoxin contamination of groundnut and maize, two staple and economically important crops, is common. Groundnut and maize consumers are chronically exposed to aflatoxins, sometimes at alarming levels, and this has severe consequences on their health and productivity. Aflatoxin contamination also impedes commercialization in local and international premium markets. In neighboring Senegal, an aflatoxin biocontrol product containing four atoxigenic isolates of A. flavus, Aflasafe SN01, has been registered and is approved for commercial use in groundnut and maize. We detected that the four genotypes composing Aflasafe SN01 are also native to The Gambia. The biocontrol product was tested during two years in 129 maize and groundnut fields and compared with corresponding untreated fields cropped by smallholder farmers in The Gambia. Treated crops contained up to 100% less aflatoxins than untreated crops. A large portion of the crops could have been commercialized in premium markets due to the low aflatoxin content (in many cases no detectable aflatoxins), both at harvest and after storage. Substantial aflatoxin reductions were also achieved when commercially-produced groundnut received treatment. Here we report for the first time the use and effectiveness of an aflatoxin biocontrol product registered for use in two nations. With the current scale-out and -up efforts of Aflasafe SN01, a large number of farmers, consumers, and traders in The Gambia and Senegal will obtain health, income, and trade benefits.

Can it be all more simple? Manufacturing aflatoxin biocontrol products using dry spores of atoxigenic isolates of Aspergillus flavus as active ingredients

“…Spore viability of several fungi is also dictated by the type and concentrations of additives and protectants applied to the spores (Harman et al, 1991;Stephan and Zimmerman, 1998). On the other hand, mass production, harvesting and processing of spores of atoxigenic isolates of A. flavus is relatively simple to achieve (Senghor et al, 2020). In addition, aflatoxin biocontrol products remain stable for well over 2 years (unpublished results).…”

“…At harvest, aflatoxin levels in untreated crops reached up to 170 ppb in 2018 and up to 380 ppb in 2019. Those levels can increase under sub-optimal storage (Senghor et al, 2020). Only a small fraction of the untreated crops met the stringent EU standards and a large proportion of the untreated crops had insufficient quality to be considered safe for human consumption (Tables 2 and 3, Fig.…”

“…Coating was performed by manually shaking the required quantity of sterile sorghum grain and spore-polymer-dye suspension in a container until the grains were uniformly blue in colour. All manually produced products were subjected to standard quality tests as described previously (Agbetiameh et al, 2019;Senghor et al, 2020). These tests determined (i) proportions of germinated grains, (ii) grains with A. flavus growth, (iii) grains with other microbial (fungi or bacteria) growth, (iv) number of spores produced per g of product, and (v) identity of the A. flavus fungi recovered from the grains.…”

“…2). Quality tests for all batches (n = 360; two per ton) of product industrially manufactured with dry spores were conducted in Kahone as previously described (Agbetiameh et al, 2019;Senghor et al, 2020).…”

“…Each Aflasafe product contains, as active ingredient, a mixture of four isolates belonging to diverse atoxigenic African Aspergillus flavus VCGs (AAVs) native to the target country (Moral et al, 2020). The normal procedure to manufacture the biocontrol product is to multiply each active ingredient isolate in glass bottles containing sterilized sorghum grains, harvesting the spores in water to prepare a suspension, combining the spore suspension of each active ingredient in equal proportions, adding a polymer and a dye, and coating sterilized sorghum grains with the spore-polymer-dye suspension (Senghor et al, 2020).…”