Asha Bakari Mohamed was a PhD student in Plant Pathology. She was an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) fellow who worked on Prevalence of Mycotoxigenic Fungi and Efficacy of Multi-spectral Kernel Sorting and Irradiation Techniques in management of Mycotoxigenic fungi and Mycotoxins in maize. She did her PhD research under a sandwiched program with the University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign, USA. Asha currently works with Crop Nutrition Service Laboratory where she heads the life sciences laboratories (Plant Pathology and Microbiology). She also worked with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture from 2014 to 2020 where she started as a graduate trainee doing her master’s in microbiology research work in the Aflasafe project and later got employed as a Research Associate. Asha did all her 3 degrees at the University of Nairobi; she was the best overall final year student at the Department of Biological Sciences in 2013. She enjoys swimming and bowling as her hobbies.
Abstract
Maize, the main staple food in Kenya is largely affected by mycotoxin contamination mainly aflatoxin and fumonisins due to attack by toxigenic Aspergillus and Fusarium species, resulting in health and economic burdens. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of mycotoxigenic fungi and enhance food safety and human health by reducing mycotoxin contamination in maize using multi-spectral sorting and irradiation techniques. The study was carried out during the short rains cropping season of 2019/2020 in Eastern Kenya: Embu, Meru, Tharaka Nithi, Machakos, Makueni and Kitui Counties. A structured questionnaire in a surveyCTO software was administered to the farmers during maize sample collection and shipped to the University of Illinois for microbial analysis by plating and mycotoxin analysis using ELISA method. Maize kernels were sorted in a calibrated multi-spectral sorter and samples in the accepted and rejected streams were assayed for fumonisins; toxigenic Fusarium by qPCR; and other microbes by sequencing of ITS1F- ITS2 and V3-V5 regions for fungi and bacteria respectively. Lastly to evaluate the efficacy of E-beam irradiation in reducing Aspergillus, Fusarium, aflatoxin and fumonisins, maize was treated with E-beam irradiation dose of 5, 10 and 20 kGy. Farmer practice influenced fumonisin and aflatoxin accumulation. Single kernel multi-spectral sorting reduced fumonisins by an average of 88.9 %, toxigenic Fusarium infection, other fungi and bacteria on the maize kernel was significantly reduced. E-beam irradiation at a dose of 5 kGy reduced fungal loads to below limits of detection and pre-formed aflatoxins by 0.3 logs. There is need for policy interventions that enable food security and safety using emerging techniques. .
Important Links
https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=new_profile&hl=en
Research Supervisors
Prof. James Muthomi, Prof. Maina Wagacha, Dr. Matthew Stasiewicz and Dr. Charity Mutegi
