Mycotoxin Analysis: A Focus on Rapid Methods

Mycotoxin Analysis: A Focus on Rapid Methods.

Kristine Wolf and Florian J. Schweigert (2018) 56 pages

Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa, African Union Commission, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The outbreaks of acute aflatoxin poisoning that tragically killed hundreds of people in Eastern African countries in recent years are a cause for concern. Reports show that chronic aflatoxin exposure is attributable to at least one-third of the liver cancer cases in Africa, making liver cancer the number one cause of cancer mortality in Africa. Africa’s share of the world groundnut trade has dwindled to a mere 4% from high of 77% in the 1960’s at least partly due to difficulty to meet aflatoxin standards of major importing countries. We should also heed the mounting evidence that aflatoxin is associated with childhood stunting and with immune-system suppression. 

The challenge is complex and deserves coordinated efforts. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) collaborated with the African Union Commission (AUC) to make this publication available. Proper detection is the basis to deal with mycotoxins including aflatoxins which are invisible poisons. Considering the limited laboratory infrastructure and capacity in most parts of developing world, it is important to have rapid, reliable and accessible test methods that can be easily adopted.