Occurrence and Human-Health Impacts of Mycotoxins in Somalia

Abstract

Mycotoxins are secondary metabolites produced by various molds that contaminate many staple foods and cause a broad range of detrimental health effects in animals and humans through chronic exposure or acute toxicity. As such, the worldwide contamination of food and feed with mycotoxins is a significant problem, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. In this study, mycotoxin occurrence in staple foods consumed in Somalia was determined. A total of 140 samples (42 maize, 40 sorghum, and 58 wheat) were collected from a number of markets in Mogadishu, Somalia, and analyzed by a UPLC-MS/MS multimycotoxin method that could detect 77 toxins. All of the maize samples tested contained eight or more mycotoxins, with aflatoxin B 1 (AFB 1 ) and fumonisin B 1 (FB 1 ) levels reaching up to 908 and 17 322 μg/kg, respectively, greatly exceeding the European Union limits and guidance values. The average probable daily intake of fumonisins (FB 1 and FB 2 ) was 16.70 μg per kilogram of body weight (kg bw) per day, representing 835% of the recommended provisional maximum tolerable daily intake value of 2 μg/(kg bw)/day. A risk characterization revealed a mean national margin of exposure of 0.62 for AFB 1 with an associated risk of developing primary liver cancer estimated at 75 cancers per year per 100 000 people for white-maize consumption alone. The results clearly indicate that aflatoxin and fumonisin exposure is a major public-health concern and that risk-management actions require prioritization in Somalia.

Dietary Risk Assessment and Consumer Awareness of Mycotoxins among Household Consumers of Cereals, Nuts and Legumes in North-Central Nigeria

“…The mycotoxins included AF, FUM, CIT, NIV, OTA, STER, ZEN and the emerging Fusarium mycotoxins BEAU and MON. A similar diversity of mycotoxins and other metabolites was previously reported in cowpea [ 19 ], maize [ 8 , 13 , 15 ], peanut [ 14 ] and rice [ 20 ] in Nigeria and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa [ 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 ], emphasizing that mycotoxin contamination of foods is an important food safety challenge that is yet to be solved in sub-Saharan Africa. To date, however, only few mycotoxins including AFs, FUM, OTA and ZEN determined by ELISA or thin-layer chromatography were reported in sorghum and millet in Nigeria [ 17 , 27 ].…”

“…With respect to food type, as much as 8–98 times higher average PDIs of the population categories (children, adolescents and adults) were calculated for consumers of aflatoxin-contaminated peanut than for the consumers of other foods ( Table 5 ). The exposure levels to total AF estimated in the present study for peanut consumers was as much as six times higher than the levels reported in a nationwide study in Nigeria (187–1124 ng/kg bw/day) [ 14 ], whereas the exposure levels for maize consumers were similar to the values obtained in Ondo state, Nigeria (138–830 ng/kg bw/day) [ 58 ] but lower than previous reports from a nationwide study in Nigeria (318–1909 ng/kg bw/day) [ 57 ] and in Somalia (649–1614 ng/kg bw/day) [ 26 ]. Consequent to the estimated high exposures, the MOEs were far lower than 10,000, with the values for peanut consumers being the lowest (0.026–0.16) compared to other foods: maize (0.20–1.23), rice (0.41–2.50) and sorghum (2.51–15.3).…”

Sphingolipid Effects on the Plasma Membrane Produced by Addition of Fumonisin B1 to Maize Embryos

“…In animals, FB1 produces equine leucoencephalomalacia, porcine pulmonary edema, and rodent hepatic cancer among other toxic effects [6,7]. Consumption of F. verticillioides contaminated corn has been correlated with an increased incidence of human esophageal cancer in Southern Africa and China [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Three molecular targets of the FB1 have been described in plants so far: Ceramide synthase (CS) [15], low pHi α-amylase isoforms [5], and the PM H + -ATPase [16].…”

Update on mycotoxin contamination of maize and peanuts in East African Community Countries

“…J Food Sci Nutr The 7(1): 001-010. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.17352/jfsnt.000026 economic consequences as well as severe health effects to humans and animals as a result of acute toxicity or chronic exposure [5,17,80]. The health consequences resulting from exposures to mycotoxins in humans range from acute to chronic effects such as afl atoxicosis, organ toxicity, neurotoxicity, Mutagenicity, Carcinogenicity, cytotoxicity, Growth retardation, diarrhea and vomiting, Immunosuppression, reproductive disorders, and death [4,17,27,35,42,43,52].…”