Prevalence of Aflatoxigenic Aspergillus in Food and Feed Samples from Karachi, Pakistan

Abstract

of food products spoilage and grains deterioration during storage, rendering them unfit for human consumption. Some of these contaminants, for instance, few species of Aspergillus and Fusarium produce mycotoxins in many food products. The quality of food and related products, such as seeds/grains, vegetables, fruits and processed products, are significantly deteriorated by these toxigenic strains (Lee et al., 2007). Different types of fungal toxins have been discovered so far, presenting different structural diversity, chemical composition and physicochemical properties. Among all of these, aflatoxins (AFs) are the most commonly occurring and extensively studied mycotoxin in food and feed commodities. They are produced as secondary metabolites and 4 types i.e., aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1), B 2 (AFB 2), G 1 (AFG 1) and G 2 (AFG 2) are the most important with reference to mutagenic, teratogenic, and immunosuppressive capabilities (Lereau et al., 2012). They are classified in group I as first class carcinogens, mutagens and immunosuppressive

Towards Managing and Controlling Aflatoxin Producers Within Aspergillus Species in Infested Rice Grains Collected from Local Markets in Kenya

“…This can be attributed to the ability of Aspergillus flavus to grow on a variety of substrates across different environmental conditions, as well as its capability to produce numerous spores that remain viable, even under extreme conditions. These findings are in agreement with reports by several other studies who revealed a high prevalence of Aspergillus species in the contamination of rice grains from local markets [19,20,21]. In our case, this contamination might be due to the exposure of rice grains to fungal colonization during processing, transportation, and storage.…”

“…Keeping in view the above results, it is obvious that the contamination level of mycotoxigenic fungi in rice grains sold at the markets is very high. Our results are in accordance with other reports demonstrating the importance of PCR assay techniques for detecting the aflatoxigenic potential of Aspergillus strains [20,21,31,32,33,34].…”

A Focus on Aflatoxin in Feedstuffs: New Developments in Analysis and Detection, Feed Composition Affecting Toxin Contamination, and Interdisciplinary Approaches to Mitigate It

“…As an additional example, Kaya-Celiker, in an interesting paper, successfully used Fourier transform mid-infrared and photoacoustic spectroscopy to identify and separate infected peanuts based on spectral characteristics [122]. Ibrahim and coworkers recently screened 102 feed samples (including poultry feed, cotton seed meal, and corn) for the presence of aflatoxin biosynthetic pathway genes ver-1, apa-2, and omt-1 using PCR assay, and thin-layer chromatography was performed to confirm the synthesis of aflatoxin in PCR-positive strains [123]. Nine samples exhibited the simultaneous presence of the three genes and all were capable of producing AFB 1 and AFB 2 .…”

Inhibitory effects of natural spices extracts on Aspergillus growth and aflatoxin synthesis

“…Several food and feed samples were screened, as reported earlier, for the presence of aflatoxigenic Aspergillus strains (Ibrahim et al, 2016). Aspergillus parasiticus (FH44) was selected for the experiment on the basis of its toxicity.…”

“…Aspergillus parasiticus (FH44) was selected for the experiment on the basis of its toxicity. This strain has shown the highest amount of AFs when isolated from a sample of maize (Ibrahim et al, 2016). Inoculum was prepared according to the method described by Ghadeer and Al-Delamiy (2012).…”