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Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity?

The dangers of population-level mycotoxin exposure have been well documented. Climate-sensitive aflatoxins (AFs) are important food hazards. The continual effects of climate change are projected to impact primary agricultural systems, and consequently food security. This will be due to a reduction i...

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Autores principales: Nji, Queenta Ngum, Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti, Mwanza, Mulunda
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9412283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36006236
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14080574
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author Nji, Queenta Ngum
Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti
Mwanza, Mulunda
author_facet Nji, Queenta Ngum
Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti
Mwanza, Mulunda
author_sort Nji, Queenta Ngum
collection PubMed
description The dangers of population-level mycotoxin exposure have been well documented. Climate-sensitive aflatoxins (AFs) are important food hazards. The continual effects of climate change are projected to impact primary agricultural systems, and consequently food security. This will be due to a reduction in yield with a negative influence on food safety. The African climate and subsistence farming techniques favour the growth of AF-producing fungal genera particularly in maize, which is a food staple commonly associated with mycotoxin contamination. Predictive models are useful tools in the management of mycotoxin risk. Mycotoxin climate risk predictive models have been successfully developed in Australia, the USA, and Europe, but are still in their infancy in Africa. This review aims to investigate whether AFs’ occurrence in African maize can be effectively mitigated in the face of increasing climate change and food insecurity using climate risk predictive studies. A systematic search is conducted using Google Scholar. The complexities associated with the development of these prediction models vary from statistical tools such as simple regression equations to complex systems such as artificial intelligence models. Africa’s inability to simulate a climate mycotoxin risk model in the past has been attributed to insufficient climate or AF contamination data. Recently, however, advancement in technologies including artificial intelligence modelling has bridged this gap, as climate risk scenarios can now be correctly predicted from missing and unbalanced data.
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spelling pubmed-94122832022-08-27 Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity? Nji, Queenta Ngum Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti Mwanza, Mulunda Toxins (Basel) Review The dangers of population-level mycotoxin exposure have been well documented. Climate-sensitive aflatoxins (AFs) are important food hazards. The continual effects of climate change are projected to impact primary agricultural systems, and consequently food security. This will be due to a reduction in yield with a negative influence on food safety. The African climate and subsistence farming techniques favour the growth of AF-producing fungal genera particularly in maize, which is a food staple commonly associated with mycotoxin contamination. Predictive models are useful tools in the management of mycotoxin risk. Mycotoxin climate risk predictive models have been successfully developed in Australia, the USA, and Europe, but are still in their infancy in Africa. This review aims to investigate whether AFs’ occurrence in African maize can be effectively mitigated in the face of increasing climate change and food insecurity using climate risk predictive studies. A systematic search is conducted using Google Scholar. The complexities associated with the development of these prediction models vary from statistical tools such as simple regression equations to complex systems such as artificial intelligence models. Africa’s inability to simulate a climate mycotoxin risk model in the past has been attributed to insufficient climate or AF contamination data. Recently, however, advancement in technologies including artificial intelligence modelling has bridged this gap, as climate risk scenarios can now be correctly predicted from missing and unbalanced data. MDPI 2022-08-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9412283/ /pubmed/36006236 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14080574 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Nji, Queenta Ngum
Babalola, Olubukola Oluranti
Mwanza, Mulunda
Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity?
title Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity?
title_full Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity?
title_fullStr Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity?
title_full_unstemmed Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity?
title_short Aflatoxins in Maize: Can Their Occurrence Be Effectively Managed in Africa in the Face of Climate Change and Food Insecurity?
title_sort aflatoxins in maize: can their occurrence be effectively managed in africa in the face of climate change and food insecurity?
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9412283/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36006236
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxins14080574
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