The Aflatoxin Challenge

)Lynn Brown

October 26th 2015Brussels,

What are Aflatoxins?

• Invisible – poisons in fungi that infect many crops – maize, groundnuts, sorghum, rice

• Complex– Preharvest: Aflatoxin contamination

increases with crop stress – drought, pests

– Postharvest: Increases further with poor drying and storage conditions

• Persistent - Very difficult to destroy or remove through normal food processing

www.ipm.iastate.edu

The Health Challenge• Acute aflatoxicosis – high exposure to aflatoxin,

often fatal• Liver Cancer – globally a significant cancer killer, • Pregnant women

• higher anemia, higher maternal mortality• lower birthweight babies

• Children• stunted growth and cognitive development• Wasting• Immune suppression

The Livestock Challenge• Aflatoxicosis – discovered in 1961 when

100,000 turkeys died in the UK, contaminated feed

• rabbits ducks turkeys chicken fish swine cattle sheep.

• Reduced feed conversion ratios, less weight gain – as in humans!

• Passed through to milk - cows’ milk v breastmilk?

• Cheese, but less in meat, eggs• Fish greater

The Food Security Challenge

• When contaminated crop is withdrawn from the supply chain or when unsafe food is consumed:– Food security is undermined– Use of contaminated food – livestock!

• Aflatoxins are a gender issue– Drying and storage– Less time to protect against crop stress– Less access to knowledge and resources– Women often responsible for filling the granary

The Trade and Economic Challenge

• Legislative and regulatory limits on aflatoxins impact income generation:– Groundnut export from Africa greatly reduced, no

more pyramids

• Trade is compromised:– Obstacle to meeting the recent Malabo Declaration

trade or poverty reduction targets

• Contaminated materials remain in the domestic food system:– Better quality produce goes to export market– Poor cannot afford to throw away food

Picture: after Mbaye(2004)

Controlling aflatoxins

• biocontrol – Aflasafe, 80 – 90% reduction in aflatoxins.

• good crop management in field to reduce plant stress

• post harvest drying and storage• diet diversification

20 March 2012 | Slide 7

Economic Impact Estimates: Case Studies

Country DALYs lost monetized burden Nigeria 100,965 between USD112 and 942

millionThe Gambia 93,638 USD 94.4 million

Senegal 98,304 between USD 78 and 138 million

Tanzania 546,000 between USD 92 and 757 million• Costs based on monetization of the DALYs is economic loss due to

mortality and morbidity. • Estimates capture only the amount of money that would be saved

from DALYs, if efforts to reduce aflatoxin exposures were exercised.

• Estimates do not take into account potential impact on national and international trade.

• Senegal estimated cost of action to achieve 20 ppb standard: USD 35 million

Aflatoxin is a complex development challenge for Africa

Public health

Food and nutrition security

Trade and economy

• Multi-ministerial – challenges governments

• Multi-sectoral - challenges development partners

• Multi-country – cannot have a multitude of standards and regulations

• Continent-wide – undermines achievement of Malabo Declaration, especially in trade growth and rural poverty reduction

Flagship program of DREA, AU Commission

– support member states– Lead, catalyze,

promote, and share knowledge to promote a continent wide action agenda to fight aflatoxins

About PACA

• Innovative partnership that unites over 200 organizations from 54 countries in Africa

• Comprised of public, private sector & non-state actors

• Coordinated by a Secretariat at African Union Commission

• Governed by a multi-sector Steering Committee• Focused on producing results at country-level,

with continental and regional coordination

PACA Theory of Change

The PACA Model at country level:

• Directly support member state governments while forging strong partnerships with other stakeholders

• Generate evidence to inform policies and interventions for aflatoxin control, feeding into national plans

• Mainstream aflatoxin control plans into existing strategies and frameworks – including SWAPs

• Pilot the national plan approach in selected countries and scale up

Potential Areas for Partnership• Alignment and coordination: Support to countries and

Regional Economic Communities (RECS) in addressing aflatoxins as a food safety issue through a holistic approach

• Evidence-based and coherent policy development: Development of AfricaAIMS as a one-stop shop for data on aflatoxins in Africa

• Support innovation in agriculture and food production: revive the groundnut value chain & increase trade

• Food safety monitoring capacity: Support the adoption of appropriate testing technologies, strengthening testing facilities and adherence to standards through the public & private sectors

A complex challenge – can we meet it?

THANK YOU!