When microbiology meets plant and human health: visiting the aflasafe factory, in Kaolack, Senegal

Apr 06, 2022 • 5:17 AM UTC

Kaolack Region, Senegal

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Melanie Hannebelle

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Aflatoxins are compounds produced by Aspergillus flavius fungi. These toxins are toxic when ingested by humans, and cause liver cancer. Children are particularly affected.
These fungi frequently grow on crops, resulting in high aflatoxin content, which then ends up in food. For this reason, sanitary standards limit the amount of aflatoxin present. For farmers, this means that the harvest cannot be exported, and it often ends up on the plates of the less wealthy…

A solution has been developed by the aflasafe team, in collaboration with the University of Arizona. It consists of using strains of fungi that do not produce aflatoxins, and sowing them in the fields to occupy all the space available on the crops. Thus, the toxic strains of Aspergillus flavius have no room to grow, and… goodbye aflatoxins!

Sorghum is inoculated with the spores of protective fungi, using the machines shown in the photos above. In short, it involves cleaning and then sterilizing the sorghum, before mixing it with the spores and a blue colored adhesion agent.

Spore coated sorghum

Coated sorghum, after incubation in a moist environment As part of quality control, it is important to be able to check the growth of spores on sorghum. Today, we did it with the foldscope!

The coated sorghum is then spread in the fields, and the protective fungi prevent the spread of the aflatoxin-producing strains. It is particularly useful in the groundnut basin of Kaolack, in Senegal.