International conference features risk assessment of raw milk consumption in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

Sale of raw milk at Port-Bouët market in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (photo credit: ILRI/Sylvie Mireille Kouamé-Sina).

Every day, some 652 consumers of raw milk in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire are exposed to the risk of gastro-intestinal infection caused by harmful milk-borne bacteria, a study has shown. The study was done under the collaborative Safe Food, Fair Food project which is led by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI).

As is the case in most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, milk in the informal or traditional market in Côte d’Ivoire is often sold raw. Many consumers routinely boil milk before drinking it, thus eliminating the health risk presented by milk-borne pathogens. However, some choose to consume the milk raw without any form of heat treatment. Unhygienic handling and storage of milk can also compromise the quality of raw milk sold to consumers.

Sylvie Mireille Kouamé-Sina, an Ivorian researcher at the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d’Ivoire (CSRS), led the study on bacterial risk assessment of informally marketed milk in Abidjan.

Just over half (51.6%) of sampled milk consumers in Abidjan reportedly drank their milk raw. The main disease-causing bacteria isolated from the marketed raw milk were E. coli, Enterococcus sp. and Staphylococcus aureus. These species were found in about 58% of samples of informally marketed milk.

A risk model revealed that consumers of raw milk in Abidjan have a 30% chance of drinking milk that is not microbiologically safe. For this reason, boiling of informally marketed milk is recommended as a risk-mitigation strategy against milk-borne pathogenic bacteria.

Kouamé-Sina presented these findings during a poster session at the 5th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS 2013) which was held on 21-25 July 2013 in Leipzig, Germany. The international conference brought together 2270 participants from 70 countries across all continents. Africa was represented by 27 participants from Côte d’Ivoire (1), Egypt (2), Nigeria (11), South Africa (12) and Tunisia (1).

Various topics on the latest advances in microbiology and biotechnology were discussed, including microbial food safety, trends in pathogen monitoring, viral ecology and evolution, new perspectives in bioenergy, and microbial interactions and climate change.

“The conference was a very interesting forum for thousands of international microbiologists from Europe and around the world to assess the current status of techniques used in microbiology,” said Kouamé-Sina.

“It was especially useful for young scientists as it allowed for interaction with leading researchers and exchange of knowledge and information on the latest advances in microbiology,” she added.

View the poster, Bacterial risk assessment of milk produced locally in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

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Read more about ILRI’s research on food safety in informal markets.

 

Food safety on the agenda at FARA meeting on agriculture in Africa

Traders in beef and pork meat at the Xipamanine traditional market in Maputo, Mozambique (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

In many countries of sub-Saharan Africa, informal markets play an important role in supplying most of the meat, milk, eggs and fish that poor people depend on for their nourishment.

Informal markets are those where traditional processing and products predominate and where traders are often unlicensed and do not pay tax.

Examples include street food markets, milk hawking systems, wet markets for pork, backyard poultry systems and artisanal production of cheese and other fermented milk products.

Despite the important role of Africa’s informal food markets in providing nutrition, employment and income to millions of people, these markets are often not subject to effective health and safety regulation.

Several approaches to food safety in informal markets have focused on food-borne hazards, with a tendency to adopt stringent international food quality standards with little regard for local contexts.

On the other hand, risk-based approaches to food safety do not just consider the presence or absence of food-borne hazards, but go further to assess whether there are certain practices that can minimize the health risks presented by the hazards.

Take, for example, the case of raw milk which is often sold informally in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

It is well known that raw milk is a good medium for microbial growth and is prone to microbial spoilage if not cooled immediately after milking.

Pathogenic species like E. coli often occur naturally in raw milk. However, most consumers in Africa routinely boil milk before they drink it, a simple practice that effectively kills any milk-borne pathogens, thus rendering the milk safe to drink.

A hazard-based approach to food safety that focuses solely on the hazard (E. coli in raw milk) would quickly condemn the milk as ‘unsafe for human consumption’.

However, a risk-based approach that considers risk assessment (E. coli is present in raw milk and causes disease), risk management (boiling of raw milk) and risk communication (educating consumers to boil milk before drinking it) is more appropriate as it is based on evidence of potential harm and not perceptions.

The subject of food safety in informal markets in Africa will be among several topics to be discussed during a side event by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) on the first day of the 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week which takes place on 15-20 July 2013 in Accra, Ghana.

The topic of the ILRI side event is Livestock research for Africa’s food security.

ILRI veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert Delia Grace will speak on the topic of food safety and aflatoxins.

Aflatoxins are highly toxic metabolites produced by the mould Aspergillus flavus and known to cause suppression of the immune system, liver disease and death in both humans and animals.

Aspergillus can grow in a wide range of foods and feed and thrive under favourable growth conditions of high temperature and moisture content.

In Africa, aflatoxin contamination of cereals, groundnuts and dried fruits leads to an estimated annual loss to food exporters of 670 million US dollars.

Grace leads ILRI’s research program on food safety and zoonoses. She also leads the ‘agriculture-associated diseases’ theme of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Grace will address the following questions:

• What are risk-based approaches to food safety in informal markets where most of the poor buy and sell?
• How should we deal with food safety dynamics: livestock revolution, urbanization and globalization?
• How can we better understand the public health impacts of aflatoxins?

Other topics that will be discussed at the side event are

• vaccine biosciences;
• the Biosciences eastern and central Africa (BecA)-ILRI hub;
• risk and vulnerability in drylands; and
• the biomass crisis in intensifying smallholder systems.

Read more about ILRI’s food safety projects in Africa

• Safe Food, Fair Food
• Capacity and action for aflatoxin reduction in eastern Africa
• Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins in maize and dairy products for poor consumers in Kenya

For more information about the 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week, follow updates on the blog or the Twitter feed #AASW6.

 

Agriculture and health experts develop plan of action for aflatoxin control in Africa

Aflatoxin-contaminated groundnut kernels from Mozambique. The Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa has identified five priority strategic areas for action towards control of aflatoxins in Africa (photo credit: IITA).

Regional and international experts in agriculture, health, research and trade have drawn up a plan of action for the control of aflatoxins in Africa, following a strategy development workshop organized by the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa held on 10-12 April 2013 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

“Control of aflatoxins is needed to achieve greater agricultural development, food security and improve health, particularly in Africa where contamination is widespread and often acute,” said Yemi Akinbamijo, head of the Agriculture and Food Security Division of the African Union Commission.

The workshop participants identified five priority strategic thematic areas for action:

• Research and technology for control of aflatoxins
• Legislation, policies and standards in the management of aflatoxin in Africa
• Growing commerce and trade while protecting lives from aflatoxins
• Enhancing capacity building on aflatoxin management, control and regulatory processes to ensure reduced exposure
• Public awareness, advocacy and communication

Aflatoxins are highly toxic metabolites produced by the mould Aspergillus flavus and known to cause suppression of the immune system, liver disease and death in both humans and animals.

Aspergillus can grow in a wide range of foods and feed and thrive under favourable growth conditions of high temperature and moisture content.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that 25% of the world’s food crops are affected by aflatoxins, with countries in the tropics and subtropics at most risk.

Aflatoxin contamination can occur before crops are harvested when temperatures are high, during harvest if wet conditions occur and after harvest if there is insect damage to the stored crop or if moisture levels are high during storage and transportation.

In Africa, aflatoxin contamination of cereals, groundnuts and dried fruits leads to an estimated annual loss to food exporters of 670 million US dollars.

Among the over 110 experts who attended the strategy development workshop were three scientists from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) involved in food safety research as part of the agriculture-associated diseases component of the CGIAR Research Program in Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH).

Benoit Gnonlonfin and Jagger Harvey of the ILRI-Biosciences eastern and central Africa hub are involved in a collaborative project, Capacity and Action for Aflatoxin Reduction in Africa, aimed at establishing a regional mycotoxin analytical platform with state-of-the-art diagnostic technology that will enable better detection and control of aflatoxin contamination in maize in Kenya and Tanzania.

Delia Grace is a veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert and leads of ILRI’s Food Safety and Zoonoses Program as well as the agriculture-associated diseases component of A4NH.

Grace is involved in the project Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins for poor milk and maize producers and consumers in Kenya (MyDairy), which aims at improving food safety through reducing the risk of mycotoxins within the feed-dairy chain in Kenya.

The key aspects of the MyDairy project are:

• integrated risk and economic assessment of the Kenyan feed-dairy chain;
• investigation of technologies and strategies to reduce mycotoxins risk in the feed-dairy chain; and
• impact assessment of a package of post-harvest strategies for reducing aflatoxins in maize.

Erastus Kang’ethe, a meat and milk expert at the University of Nairobi, who also attended the workshop, is one of the partners in the MyDairy project.

Access the workshop documents and presentations

 

International workshop to discuss an integrated approach to controlling brucellosis in Africa

Maasai father and son tend to their cattle in their paddock in Kitengela, Kenya (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

Brucellosis, also referred to as undulant fever, is a highly contagious zoonotic disease caused by the microorganism Brucella which infects multiple animal species including cattle, sheep, pigs, small ruminants, camels, water buffaloes and yaks.

Brucellosis affects both humans and animals, causing chronic fever and joint and muscle pain in humans and abortion in animals.

Cases of brucellosis in humans are often linked to consumption of unpasteurized milk and soft cheese made from the milk of infected cows.

Brucella infection in some developing countries can reach 30% of the human population, making it a serious public health disease.

In response to the problem of this disease in Africa, some 60 animal health experts from across Africa, the United States and other countries gather in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 29 to 31 January 2013 for a workshop to discuss an integrated approach to controlling brucellosis.

The workshop aims to identify gaps in brucellosis epidemiology, diagnosis, surveillance and control programs.

This will assist in designing research programs and intervention strategies to aid in the control of brucellosis at national and regional levels.

Specific topics that will be addressed include:

• Transmission of infection from animals to humans
• Laboratory biosafety practices
• Diagnostics assays, serology and organism identification
• Vaccination strategies
• Potential research collaborations

The workshop is co-organized by the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS), the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

It is sponsored by the US Department of State Biosecurity Engagement Program.

ILRI scientists Delia Grace, Eric Fèvre and Roger Pellé will attend the workshop.

Additional information is available on the USDA-ARS website