The research was conducted in the years of 2020-2021 during the growing seasons such as 2021A started from September 2020 till the end of January 2021 and 2021 B started from February till end of June 2021, in Busogo sector, Musanze District, Northern Province. The purpose of this project was to assess the impact of fertilization and drying methods such as sun drying, dry shelter and kitchen drying on aflatoxin contamination in maize before and after harvesting. The area from which this project was conducted was chosen due to the availability of a lot of number of maize growers who cultivate them not only for consumption but also for trade purpose either processed or non-processed. During this study, a total of twenty-four samples were collected, examined and evaluated for aflatoxin levels in both seasons. In the season 2021A and 2021B sample collection equivalent to twelve in each season was done then dried them within 30 days by using different drying methods such as dry shelter, kitchen drying, sun drying. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four treatment of fertilizer combination in four replications was used in this study and all experimental plots were planted with one maize variety (H628) purchased from Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board. Except samples from maize cultivated without fertilizer, level of aflatoxin infection was found to be higher 10 Parts per billion. The East African countries community standard limit of 10 parts per billion which indicate a health risk to the consumer, when comparing the three drying methods employed in this study, the kitchen drying method produced lower levels of aflatoxin (1.6 parts per billion) than the dry shelter (3.2 parts per billion) and sun drying methods (2.9 parts per billion), samples taken from the control plot (T4) stands for no fertilizer application resulted greater levels of aflatoxin with an average of 25.75 prts per billion compared to other treatments which yielded aflatoxin levels of at lower than 10 parts per billion. The use of kitchen drying can be recommended as well as mixture of both organic and inorganic fertilizers when growing maize in order to reduce the level of aflatoxin.

Mycoflora, mycotoxin contamination and proximate mineral composition of smoked-dried frog (Aubria sp.) samples purchased from different markets in Ibadan, Oyo State were investigated. A total of 20 composite samples made up of 120 smoked-dried frog samples were collected. The total fungi count ranged from 1.0 x103 – 8.0 x 103 cfu/g. A total of 70 fungal strains including: Alternaria sp., Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus tamarii, Cladosporium sphaerospermum, Fusarium compacticum, Fusarium oxysporum, Fusarium sacchari, Fusarium solani, Fusarium verticillioides, Penicillium chrysogenum, Penicillium citrinum, Penicillium oxalicum, Trichoderma viridae and Rhizophus sp. were isolated from the samples. All the samples were contaminated with aflatoxin and 70% were contaminated with deoxynivalenol (DON). The total Aflatoxin and DON in the two sampling ranged from 5.06h – 9.17a ppb, 1.86h – 5.58a ppb and 0.00 – 0.96 ppm and 0.00 – 0.09 ppm. The levels of mycotoxins contamination were within the maximum limit permitted. The Aspergillus flavus and Fusarium spp. were able to produce aflatoxin and DON which ranged from 1.65 – 3.56 ppb and 0.05 – 0.19 ppm. The percentage crude protein, K, Ca and Fe content in the samples ranged from 40.79j – 53.93a, 217.85 – 1235.83 mg/100 g, 4201 – 437.25 mg/100 g and 431.75 – 1065.0 mg/100 g. The moisture content ranged from 11.58h – 16.31a. The Cd, Zn and Cu content ranged from 0.00 – 0.22 mg/100 g, 9.43 – 5.20 mg/100 g and 7.05 – 18.58 mg/100 g. The presence of mycotoxigenic fungi and mycotoxin levels in the dried frog samples is of public health concern and proper attention is needed for the control of quality and adequate preservation before sales and consumption.

The cultivation and the usage of maize have been significantly increased across all provinces of Rwanda. Nevertheless, the problem of aflatoxin contamination remains a major factor that renders them to be unfit for animal and human consumption. In this research, the effects of drying methods (sun drying, kitchen drying, dry shelter) post aflatoxin infection in maize were evaluated in Northern Rwanda. A randomized complete block design with four replications was used with maize variety (H628) with drying methods as the main plot. Maize samples were tested for aflatoxin using aflatest. In both seasons (2021 A and 2021 B) the aflatoxin results show that the aflatoxin infection levels were lower in maize dried with kitchen drying (1.4 ppb) compared to the samples dried with sun drying (1.6 ppb) and dry shelter (2.2). Also, it was seen that the three drying methods are good for reducing the aflatoxin infection levels lower than 10 ppb as standards limit for East African countries. The aflatoxin infection levels were found to be significant (≤10 ppb) as results of kitchen drying than sun drying and dry shelter methods. This research resulted that proper drying such as drying maize on kitchen fire (kitchen drying) produce the lower level of aflatoxin infection in maize.

Current research work was carried out for the detection of potential bacterial pathogen and aflatoxigenic fungi Aspergillus spp. from grain comprising [Rice (5), Maize (5), Wheat (5), Khessari dal (5) and Anchora dal (5)] were collected from 3 different local markets of Dinajpur District, Bangladesh. 15 bacterial isolates comprising 4 genera of bacteria were found from a total of 25 samples. The isolated bacteria were Staphylococcus spp., Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., Salmonella spp. with 16%, 28%, 16% and 16% prevalence respectively. Antibiogram studies revealed that overall effective drugs against isolated bacteria were Ciprofloxacin followed by Gentamycin. But resistant drugs were Penicillin, Vancomycin, Erythromycin, Kanamycin, and Amoxicillin. The variation in the sensitivity of common antibiotic could be the result of extensive and indiscriminate use of these antibiotics. Aspergillus spp. was isolated from 4-grain samples with 16% prevalence. But aflatoxigenic Aspergillus spp. was isolated from 3 samples with 12% prevalence. From the wheat samples and maize, the aflatoxigenic fungus was isolated and their prevalence in maize, wheat was 40% and 20% respectively. Their early detection can help to take preventive measures to combat economic and health losses. The study showed that earlier detections can be made by simple traditional identifications using macro and micromorphological fungal features rather than adopting the time and cost consuming molecular identification techniques.

Aflatoxins are the potential carcinogens produced as secondary metabolites by Aspergillus flavus. They have the ability to contaminate large number of food which ultimately affect the human population. Malt extract agar was selected for the growth of control stains of fungus. The aim of the study was to develop a reliable and quick method for the detection of aflatoxin producing strains in peanuts by using molecular approaches. Total 80 samples of infected peanuts were collected from four different cities of Punjab and checked for their aflatoxin contamination. For aflatoxin detection, three target genes nor1, ver1 and aflR were selected which was involved in the aflatoxin biosynthesis. In all examined cases, 24 out of 80 (30%) samples successfully amplified all three genes indicating aflatoxigenic activity. Discrimination between aflatoxigenic and non-aflatoxigenic strains were also determined on the basis of amplification of these three target DNA fragments. In this study, it was also demonstrated that only specific strains were able to produce the aflatoxin contamination in peanuts.