Influence of socio-economic and agronomic factors on aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination of maize in western Kenya

Food Science & Nutrition
Nancy Karimi NjeruZeyaur Rahman Khan

Abstract

Consumption of maize contaminated with mycotoxins has been associated with detrimental health effects. A farm survey covering 116 push-pull and 139 non-push-pull cropping systems was conducted to determine the socio-economic and agronomic factors that influence farmers' knowledge on incidence and contamination of maize by ear rots and associated mycotoxins in western Kenya. All the respondents were smallholder farmers between the ages of 23 and 80 years, with 50% of them being female. Maize samples were collected from the standing crop in the field of each interviewed farmer and analyzed for aflatoxin and fumonisin. Only a small proportion of farmers had knowledge of aflatoxin and ear rots in maize. Overall, less than 20% of maize samples were contaminated with both aflatoxin and fumonisin, and more maize samples were contaminated with fumonisin as compared to aflatoxin. Proportions of maize samples containing higher than the acceptable Kenyan regulatory threshold (10 µg/kg) for aflatoxin and European Commission regulatory threshold (1,000) µg/kg for fumonisin were lower in maize samples from push-pull cropping system. Age of farmer and county of residence were significantly and positively associated with knowledge of aflatoxin...Continue Reading

References

Dec 7, 2005·Environmental Health Perspectives·Lauren LewisUNKNOWN Kenya Aflatoxicosis Investigation Group
Aug 24, 2006·Journal of Food Protection·Clement G AfolabiEphraim J A Ekpo
Sep 21, 2007·International Journal of Food Microbiology·Peter J Cotty, Ramon Jaime-Garcia
Mar 18, 2008·The Veterinary Journal·J Fink-Gremmels
Apr 3, 2010·EXS·Robert R M Paterson, Nelson Lima
Nov 28, 2014·Food Additives & Contaminants. Part A, Chemistry, Analysis, Control, Exposure & Risk Assessment·S N ChulzeJ Köhl
Oct 28, 2016·Journal of Food Science and Technology·Duncan O MbugeRaffaele Mezzenga

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Citations

Dec 2, 2020·International Journal of Environmental Health Research·Ruth Nabwire Wangia-DixonJia-Sheng Wang

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Methods Mentioned

BETA
enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay

Software Mentioned

SPSS

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