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ARS Home » Southeast Area » New Orleans, Louisiana » Southern Regional Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #219463
Title: Influences of Climate on Aflatoxin Producing Fungi and Aflatoxin Contamination

Author
item Cotty, Peter
item JAIME-GARCIA, RAMON - UNIV OF AZ

Submitted to: International Journal of Food Microbiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/20/2007
Publication Date: 6/22/2007
Citation: Cotty, P.J., Jaime-Garcia, R. 2007. Influences of climate on aflatoxin producing fungi and aflatoxin contamination. International Journal of Food Microbiology. 119:109-115.

Interpretive Summary: Aflatoxins are a group of poisons produced by several fungi during crop infection. The resulting crop infection results both in products unsafe for human consumption and in tremendous loss in crop value. The weather is an important factor in dictating where aflatoxin contamination of crops might occur. However, the exact nature of such relationships is often not possible to decipher because of the difficulty and expense of measuring both weather variables and aflatoxin content across large areas. Tight collaborations between ARS researchers and South Texas farmers have overcome this barrier. Analysis of the data acquired by this collaboration resulted in an improved picture of how climate influences crop contamination across South Texas and some simple management procedures farmers may follow to reduce the impact of contamination on crops in that region.

Technical Abstract: Aflatoxins are potent mycotoxins that cause developmental and immune system suppression, cancer, and death. As a result of regulations intended to reduce human exposure, crop contamination with aflatoxins causes significant economic loss for producers, marketers, and processors of diverse susceptible crops. Aflatoxin contamination occurs when specific fungi in the genus Aspergillus infect crops. Many industries frequently affected by aflatoxin contamination know from experience and anecdote that fluctuations in climate impact the extent of contamination. Climate influences contamination, in part, by direct effects on the causative fungi. As climate shifts, so do the complex communities of aflatoxin-producing fungi. This includes changes in the quantity of aflatoxin-producers in the environment and alterations to fungal community structure. Fluctuations in climate also influence predisposition of hosts to contamination by altering crop development and by affecting insects that create wounds on which aflatoxin-producers proliferate. Aflatoxin contamination is prevalent both in warm humid climates and in irrigated hot deserts. In temperate regions, contamination may be severe during drought. The contamination process is frequently broken down into two phases with the first phase occurring on the developing crop and the second phase affecting the crop after maturation. Rain and temperature influence the phases differently with dry, hot conditions favoring the first and warm, wet conditions favoring the second. Contamination varies with climate both temporally and spatially. Geostatistics and multiple regression analyses have shed light on influences of weather on contamination. Geostatistical analyses have been used to identify recurrent contamination patterns and to match these with environmental variables. In the process environmental conditions with the greatest impact on contamination are identified. Likewise, multiple regression analyses allow ranking of environmental variables based on relative influence on contamination. Understanding the impact of climate may allow development of improved management procedures, better allocation of monitoring efforts, and adjustment of agronomic practices in anticipation of global climate change.