Review on the Impact of Aflatoxine in Dairy Industry: Occurrence and Control the Case of Ethiopia

Abstract

Livestock is vital to the livelihood of people and to the economics of many developing countries like Ethiopia. This review paper attempts to identify the impact of aflatoxine in dairy industry by determining its occurrence and control methods. Aflatoxin is one of the most common mycotoxins which can be found in milk and are generally produced in animal feed by toxigenic fungi such as Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus parasiticus and the rare Aspergillus nomius. Aflatoxins have been found in a variety of agricultural commodities, but the most pronounced contamination has been encountered in maize, peanuts, cottonseed and tree nuts. Aflatoxins are also toxic fungal metabolites found in foods and feeds. When ruminants eat AFB (1)-feedstuffs, they metabolise the toxin and excrete AFM (1) in milk. Most importantly aflatoxine have a great social, economic, health impact and should be given greater attention. Moreover it is now becoming a concern issue for the country Ethiopia as well as for the individual nations. In addition to this the aflatoxin occurrence results a higher health problem in the developing countries like Ethiopia. Even though, the occurrence of aflatoxin in the world varies from one place to place the majority milk samples indicated that they are contaminated with aflatoxin beyond the recommended level. Through promotion of the effect of aflatoxine on dairy industry and its impact on the health of the consumer, it would trigger the global effort to reduce its impact on the economic, social and health.

Keywords: aflatoxine, dairy industry, health impact, Aspergillus parasiticus and Aspergillus flavus