జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ ప్లాంట్ పాథాలజీ & మైక్రోబయాలజీ

నైరూప్య

Aflatoxin producing fungi and its management: A Review

Abera Olana

Mycotoxins are a structurally dissimilar group of fungal natural products that are harmful to vertebrate animals or human when they are contaminants of feeds or food. There has been tremendous interest in what climate change scenarios have on crops, toxigenic fungi and aflatoxin contamination. A number of Aspergillus species possess the ability to produce aflatoxins though the main causative agent of contamination globally is Aspergillus flavus. Crop aflatoxin contamination is a complex process that starts in the field due to environmental and biological factors such as host susceptibility, heat and high-temperature, insect damage, and aflatoxin-producing potentials of fungal species. Currently, different types of aflatoxins are known, with aflatoxin B1, B2, G1, and G2 being the most frequent, and aflatoxin B1 is the most toxic and group 1A carcinogen. Understanding the fungi, factors those initiate them may allow development of improved management practices, better allotment of monitoring efforts, and modification of agronomic procedures in anticipation of global climate change. Use of resistant variety, recommended planting date, crop rotation, tillage, avoiding delayed harvesting, chemical, integrated management and biological control agents are the main strategies for the management of toxigenic fungi, also awareness creation for the community play a great role.