Title: Aflasafe efficacy in the mitigation of aflatoxin in The Gambia

 Ebrima AA Jallow*^1,2, Musa Bah², Faye Manneh²

1. National Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) - The Gambia: 2,.School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of The Gambia.

Introduction

 Aflatoxin are secondary metabolites of Aspergillus species with low molecular weight compounds that do not produce immediate symptoms when in contact but could have adverse long-term health effects and economic barriers. Aflasafe, is recently developed biocontrol product from non- toxigenic (atoxigenic) strains of Aspergillus flavus to mitigate aflatoxin. Aflasafe operates by out-competing and overshadowing its toxigenic cousin in the field. The competitive exclusion continues even during storage that continue to stay with the crop to protect it against contamination after harvest and decreased risk of aflatoxin contamination along the value chain. A 150 groundnut samples from farms where the aflasafe product was applied and 60 from non-aflasafe field were collected and analyzed for aflatoxin contamination level using a Vicam.

 

 Objectives

This study compares the efficacy of aflasafe in farms where the aflasafe products are applied against farms without aflasafe in each region of the country.