ILRI food safety researchers present on health impacts of aflatoxins in animal-source foods

Aflatoxins are highly toxic fungal by-products produced by certain strains of Aspergillus flavus in grains and other crops. Consumption of very high levels of aflatoxins can cause acute illness and death. Chronic exposure to aflatoxins is linked to liver cancer, especially where hepatitis is prevalent, and this is estimated to cause as many as 26,000 deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa.

Aflatoxins in contaminated animal feed not only result in reduced animal productivity, but the toxins can end up in products like milk, meat and eggs, thus presenting a health risk to humans. Of these animal-source food products, milk has the greatest risk because relatively large amounts of aflatoxin are carried over and milk is consumed especially by infants.

As part of knowledge exchange on the latest research developments in the area of aflatoxins and food safety, Delia Grace and Johanna Lindahl, food safety researchers from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), presented on aflatoxins, animal health and the safety of animal-source foods at a virtual briefing organized by the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development, a network of 37 bilateral donors, multilateral agencies and international financing institutions working to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable rural development.

Their presentation began with an overview of aflatoxins and how livestock and fish get exposed to aflatoxins. This was followed by a discussion on the impact of aflatoxins on animal health and production, how aflatoxins in crops move through the food chain to end up in animal-source foods and ways to manage the risk of aflatoxins in animals and animal-source foods.

The need for evidence-based approaches in developing standards for animal feeds was highlighted, as well as the need for risk-based regulation and legislation to provide guidelines on safety issues such as appropriate management of aflatoxin-contaminated feed.

The presentation concluded with a summary of the key messages and policy recommendations, followed by a question-and-answer session.

Watch the recording of the briefing (approx. 34 minutes)

Jump to the question-and-answer session [16:37]

More information on research on aflatoxins and food safety is available in a set of 19 research briefs published in November 2013 by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). The briefs were co-edited by Laurian Unnevehr of IFPRI and Delia Grace of ILRI.

Read more about ILRI’s research projects on aflatoxins

• 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

 

IFPRI launches research briefs on aflatoxins and food safety

Harvested maize in Mozambique. Aflatoxins in maize and other staple crops pose significant public health risks in many developing countries (photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann).

Earlier this week, on Tuesday 5 November 2013, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) launched a set of 19 research briefs on managing aflatoxins for improved food safety.

Aflatoxins are naturally occurring carcinogenic by-products of fungi on grains and other crops like maize and groundnuts. They pose a significant threat to public health in many developing countries and are also a barrier to the growth of domestic and international commercial markets for food and feed.

Acute exposure to high levels of aflatoxins can be fatal while chronic exposure to aflatoxins has been linked to liver cancer and is estimated to cause as many as 26,000 deaths annually in sub-Saharan Africa. Aflatoxins have also been linked to stunted growth in children and immune system disorders.

The set of briefs – Aflatoxins: Finding Solutions for Improved Food Safety – provides different perspectives on aflatoxin risks and solutions. The analyses fall under four broad themes:

1. what is known about the health risks from aflatoxins;
2. how to overcome market constraints to improved aflatoxin control by building new market channels and incentives;
3. what is the international policy context for taking action in developing countries; and
4. what is the state of research on new aflatoxin control technologies, including new methods for aflatoxin detection, crop breeding, biological control, food storage and handling, and postharvest mitigation.

The briefs are co-edited by Laurian Unnevehr, senior research fellow at IFPRI and theme leader for value chains for enhanced nutrition in the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), and Delia Grace, veterinary epidemiologist and food safety expert at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and theme leader for agriculture-associated diseases in A4NH.

Access the individual research briefs

Download the full set of research briefs (PDF)

Read more about ILRI’s research projects on aflatoxins:

• 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

 

Enhancing food safety through agriculture: Science Forum examines different approaches

Moses Osiru pitches his integrated approach to aflatoxins

On 23 and 24 September, the CGIAR Science Forum 2013 on ‘Nutrition and health outcomes: targets for agricultural research’ featured a parallel session on food safety.

It was organized by Delia Grace from the International Livestock Research Institute as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH)

Delia opened the session arguing the case for agricultural interventions for food safety.

The session drew on examples of aflatoxin control as an example of agriculture-based interventions for human health.

Five speakers ‘pitched’ their research initiatives to a panel representing investors and the audience. The pitches led in to a discussion on priorities to achieve health outcomes through research on food safety.

Poisons produced by fungi

IITA’s Fen Beed introduced participants to aflatoxins – poisons produced by Aspergillus species and infecting crops like maize, groundnut, nuts, spices and many others.  Depending on the degree of contamination in food and feed, they cause death, cancer, immuno-suppression and stunting of children. They are passed from mothers to babies; and from feed to milk. Due to the risks to human and animal health, international trade strictly regulates contamination levels of products that may be affected by aflatoxins. Mitigation of aflatoxins is therefore both a food safety and a market access issue.

Five mitigation approaches

The aflatoxin challenge was used as a focus to bring together and assess 5 current approaches to mitigation:

• Breeding aflatoxin-resistant maize: George Mahuku, CIMMYT
• Biological control of aflatoxins: Peter Cotty, University of Arizona
• Integrated management of aflatoxins in maize and groundnuts: Ranajit Bandyopadhyay, IITA
• Genetic enhancement of groundnuts to resist aflatoxins, Hari Upadhyaya: ICRISAT
• Integrated groundnut aflatoxin management:  Moses Osiru, ICRISAT

The role of research investors was taken by Laurian Unnevehr (IFPRI), Tom Randolph (Livestock and Fish research program) and Wycliffe Kumwenda (National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi). The panelists challenged the presenters on the science and potential large scale impact of their approaches. As part of the exercise, the investor panel and the audience ‘invested’ token funds in each initiative as a device to surface different perspectives. After the counting, the investment portfolio of the panel was quite different to that of the audience.

Tom Randolph: “The investors were attracted most to the two integrated control programs, one rolling out a generic control program across crops and across Africa, and the other supporting improved control for groundnuts in southern Africa. These demonstrated thoughtful attention to a mix of control strategies and the incentives that will be needed to ensure uptake and sustained provision and use by focusing on enabling policies and partnership with the private sector. The investors didn’t ignore the other research efforts, however! They also invested in further development of the control technologies themselves: biocontrol and breeding for aflatoxin resistance in maize and groundnuts. It was recognized that investments in these efforts serve to complement those that should be demonstrating the commitment of the private sector for taking up biocontrol and the research investments in the other breeding drivers for drought resistance and yield. The session helped to underline the need to better demonstrate our potential for short term benefits while ensuring an appropriate balance of longer term discovery research.”

Reflections

Delia Grace: “With nearly one billion hungry and two billion suffering from the hidden hunger caused by micro-nutrient deficiency, there is massive interest in the role of agriculture in better feeding poor people. However, food security is not enough. The food that feeds us also sickens and kills us. Food-borne disease is the single most common disease in the world, causing around 5 billion episodes of gastrointestinal illness a year. Diarrhoea (between one third and two thirds related to food) is among the top killers of children in most poor countries. This session focused on the role of agricultural research in improving the safety of food in poor countries.

Among the important messages were:

• Building strong links with public health, including Food Safety authorities is important;
• Food safety in informal markets is often neglected: strong evidence on cost and benefits is needed to convince policy makers;
• Innovations have great potential for improving food safety;
• In informal markets and subsistence systems, we need models for effective governance;
• CGIAR food safety research can have impact by linking with commodity and system CRPs.”

The presentations

• Research for agricultural approaches in farm to fork management of food safety
• What are aflatoxins?
• Integrated management of Aflatoxins in groundnuts
• Biological control of aflatoxins
• Integrated groundnut aflatoxin management
• Managing aflatoxin contamination of maize through breeding
• Genetic enhancement of groundnut for resistance to aflatoxin contamination

 

FoodAfrica research studies featured during ILRI seminar on aflatoxins

Maize contaminated with aflatoxin (photo credit: IITA).

On 22 August 2013, the Biosciences eastern and central Africa hub at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and ILRI’s Food Safety and Zoonoses program hosted a half-day seminar on the current status on aflatoxin research and management at ILRI.

The open forum was an opportunity for different working groups to engage in discussions on the ongoing and planned research projects. The seminar brought together some 30 participants and a total of 13 presentations were given on aflatoxin assessment, diagnostics, analysis and mitigation.

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. Aflatoxins from contaminated animal feed can end up in milk.

Three research studies that are part of the project Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins in maize and dairy products for poor consumers in Kenya (MyDairy project) were featured during the seminar.

The goal of the MyDairy project – the fifth of seven work packages of the FoodAfrica program – is to reduce the risk of mycotoxin contamination of staple crops in Kenya.

ILRI graduate fellow Anima Sirma presented an overview of her planned PhD research on risk assessment of aflatoxins in the Kenyan dairy value chain. The objectives of the study are to characterize the key risks of aflatoxins, identify the best control options and provide risk managers with information for decision-making.

Daniel Senerwa, another ILRI graduate fellow working towards a PhD, presented his proposed research that seeks to quantify the economic costs of aflatoxins in the Kenyan dairy value chain and examine the cost effectiveness of mitigation strategies.

Sirma and Senerwa are veterinary scientists and are undertaking their PhD studies at the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Veterinary Sciences.

Sara Ahlberg, a dairy technologist from Finland and ILRI associate research officer, presented an overview of her work on a novel biological method to mitigate aflatoxin-induced risks in food and feed with dairy-derived proteins and peptides and lactic acid bacteria that have the ability to bind aflatoxins or inhibit the growth of mycotoxin-producing moulds.

Download the seminar report

 

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

 

ILRI project surveys aflatoxin risk in the feed-dairy chain in Kenya

ILRI graduate fellow Taishi Kayano collects milk samples from a Kenyan dairy farm as part of a qualitative survey on aflatoxins in the dairy chain in Kenya. (photo credit: ILRI/Taishi Kayano).

In January 2013, an international, multidisciplinary team of five upcoming researchers undertook a scoping survey of aflatoxins in the feed-dairy chain in Kenya as part of activities of the project, “Measuring and mitigating the risk of mycotoxins in maize and dairy products for poor consumers in Kenya” (MyDairy project).

The team comprised Kenyan PhD students Anima Sirma and Daniel Senerwa, American intern Calvin Pohl, Japanese veterinary student Taishi Kayano and Kenyan postdoctoral scientist Teresa Kiama.

They visited nine districts and 27 villages in rural Kenya where they led participatory rapid appraisals on dairying and aflatoxins and held focus group discussions with women dairy farmers.

In addition, all the communities visited were given information and training on safe handling and storage of milk and animal feed.

The qualitative part of the survey collected data on the type of feeds, milk yield and the storage period for milk and feed, among other variables.

Samples of milk and feed were also collected for laboratory analysis to investigate the association between the condition of cattle and the prevalence of aflatoxin in milk.

The results of the qualitative survey are being analyzed but preliminary findings show that the surveyed farmers use a variety of feeding practices for their dairy cattle and most of the milk is marketed in the informal sector as raw, unprocessed milk.

Recalling his field research experience as an ILRI graduate fellow, Kayano had this to say:

“I visited farmers with livestock officers or chiefs in the districts. Without their help, I wouldn’t have been able to get meet the local farmers and collect the milk and feed samples.

“They also helped to identify the precise locations of the dairy farms; this was very useful as there are no detailed maps of dairy farms.

“The livestock officers also translated our questionnaires from English to Kiswahili which was a key step in acquiring the data needed for the study.

“An internship at ILRI is a really good opportunity for students who would like to work on a short-term basis in an international research institution and to experience doing research in a developing country context.”

Read more about the MyDairy project