Aflatoxins in Uganda: An Encyclopedic Review of the Etiology, Epidemiology, Detection, Quantification, Exposure Assessment, Reduction, and Control

Abstract

Uganda is an agrarian country where farming employs more than 60% of the population. Aflatoxins remain a scourge in the country, unprecedentedly reducing the nutritional and economic value of agricultural foods. This review was sought to synthetize the country’s major findings in relation to the mycotoxins’ etiology, epidemiology, detection, quantification, exposure assessment, control, and reduction in different matrices. Electronic results indicate that aflatoxins in Uganda are produced by Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus and have been reported in maize, sorghum, sesame, beans, sunflower, millet, peanuts, and cassava. The causes and proliferation of aflatoxigenic contamination of Ugandan foods have been largely due to poor pre-, peri-, and postharvest activities, poor government legislation, lack of awareness, and low levels of education among farmers, entrepreneurs, and consumers on this plague. Little diet diversity has exacerbated the risk of exposure to aflatoxins in Uganda because most of the staple foods are aflatoxin-prone. On the detection and control, these are still marginal, though some devoted scholars have devised and validated a sensitive portable device for on-site aflatoxin detection in maize and shown that starter cultures used for making some cereal-based beverages have the potential to bind aflatoxins. More efforts should be geared towards awareness creation and vaccination against hepatitis B and hepatitis A to reduce the risk of development of liver cancer among the populace.

Microbial contaminants in wild harvested and traded edible long-horned grasshopper, Ruspolia differens (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) in Uganda

“…This could be attributed to unhygienic practices during trapping such as smearing drum walls and iron sheets with moist cassava flour to prevent escape of the catch (Okia et al, 2017). Cassava flour processed under unhygienic conditions could be contaminated with microbes including those that produce mycotoxins (Kaaya and Eboku, 2010;Omara et al, 2020). Furthermore, some bacteria such as Staphylococcus spp.…”

Antivenin plants used for treatment of snakebites in Uganda: ethnobotanical reports and pharmacological evidences

“…The climate experienced is equatorial moderated by relatively high altitudes with a mean annual temperature of 20.5°C. The country's population is estimated to be 35.92 million with 5 main ethnic families: Nilotics (Acholi, Alur, Padhola, Lulya, and Jonam), Bantu (Baganda, Banyankole, Batoro, Bagwere, Bakiga, Bakiga, Banyarwanda, Bakonjo, Banyoro, and Bakiga), Hamities (mainly constituted by the Bahima), the Nilo-Hamities (Teso, Karamojong, Kakwa, Sebei, Labwor, and Tepeth) and the Sudanics (Lugwara, Madi, and Lendu) [62]. Health care services are inadequate [63], and access to allopathic drugs is limited in rural areas due to their prohibitive cost, poor transport network, chronic poverty and the general belief in efficacy of traditional medicine than western medicine [64].…”

Trends in the incidence of cancer in Kampala, Uganda, 1991 to 2015

“…22 Exposure to dietary aflatoxin is also known to be an important risk factor for liver cancer in Africa, 23 but there is little suggestion that there has been any substantial diminution in exposure in Uganda. 24 Cancer of the cervix uteri is the most common cancer of women as it has been since the 1950s. 25 Over the 25-year period, the average increase in incidence was 1.5% a year, a pattern common to most sub-Saharan African countries.…”