Aflatoxins, fungal toxins produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus in a variety of food crops, are well known as potent human hepatocarcinogens. Relatively less highlighted in the literature is the association between aflatoxin and growth impairment in children. Foodborne aflatoxin exposure, especially through maize and groundnuts, is common in much of Africa and Asia—areas where childhood stunting and underweight are also common, due to a variety of possibly interacting factors such as enteric diseases, socioeconomic status, and suboptimal nutrition. The effects of aflatoxin on growth impairment in animals and human children are reviewed, including studies that assess aflatoxin exposure in utero and through breastfeeding. Childhood weaning diets in various regions of the world are briefly discussed. This review suggests that aflatoxin exposure and its association with growth impairment in children could contribute a significant public health burden in less developed countries.

Consecutive outbreaks of acute aflatoxicosis in Kenya in 2004 and 2005 caused > 150 deaths. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization convened a workgroup of international experts and health officials in Geneva, Switzerland, in July 2005. After discussions concerning what is known about aflatoxins, the workgroup identified gaps in current knowledge about acute and chronic human health effects of aflatoxins, surveillance and food monitoring, analytic methods, and the efficacy of intervention strategies. The workgroup also identified public health strategies that could be integrated with current agricultural approaches to resolve gaps in current knowledge and ultimately reduce morbidity and mortality associated with the consumption of aflatoxin-contaminated food in the developing world. Four issues that warrant immediate attention were identified: a) quantify the human health impacts and the burden of disease due to aflatoxin exposure; b) compile an inventory, evaluate the efficacy, and disseminate results of ongoing intervention strategies; c) develop and augment the disease surveillance, food monitoring, laboratory, and public health response capacity of affected regions; and d) develop a response protocol that can be used in the event of an outbreak of acute aflatoxicosis. This report expands on the workgroup’s discussions concerning aflatoxin in developing countries and summarizes the findings.

A high-performance liquid chromatographic method has been developed for the quantitative determination of the recently described mycotoxins, fumonisins B₁ (FB₁) and B₂ (FB₂) utilizing pre-column derivatization with o-phthaldialdehyde, isocratic elution, and fluorescence detection. Prior to analysis, sample extracts were purified on strong anion exchange cartridges. The method has been applied to the analysis of naturally contaminated corn and mixed horse feed samples as well as fungal culture material, for the presence of the mycotoxins. Detection limits are approximately 50 ng g⁻¹ for FB₁ and 100 ng g⁻¹ for FB₂. The method proved to be highly reproducible and recoveries of the toxins from the purification steps were found to be 99.5% and 85.9% for FB₁ and FB₂, respectively.

Adverse human health effects from the consumption of mycotoxins have occurred for many centuries. Although mycotoxin contamination of agricultural products still occurs in the developed world, the application of modern agricultural practices and the presence of a legislatively regulated food processing and marketing system have greatly reduced mycotoxin exposure in these populations. At the mycotoxin contamination levels generally found in food products traded in these market economies, adverse human health effects have largely been overcome. However, in the developing world, where climatic and crop storage conditions are frequently conducive to fungal growth and mycotoxin production, much of the population relies on subsistence farming or on unregulated local markets. The extent to which mycotoxins affect human health is difficult to investigate in countries whose health systems lack capacity and in which resources are limited. Aflatoxin B₁, the toxin on which major resources have been expended, has long been linked to liver cancer, yet its other effects, such as immune suppression and growth faltering previously observed in veterinary studies, are only now being investigated and characterized in human populations. The extent to which factors such as immune suppression contribute to the overall burden of infectious disease is difficult to quantify, but is undoubtedly significant. Thus, food safety remains an important opportunity for addressing current health problems in developing countries.