Immunology | Immune system| Immunity

1. Fungi which contaminate a wide variety of foodstuffs,especially cereals,grains also produce toxic metabolites,frequently termed mycotoxins.
2. Molds are capable of producing a variety of complex organic molecules,most of which are non-toxic.
3. Ergotism from rye infected with claviceps purpurea was probably the first mycotoxicosis to be recognized,but it has larger been eliminated as a human food problem.
4. Aflatoxins, the toxic metabolites produced by some strains of the fungus Aspergillus flavus have been widely studied in recent years,because of their known toxicity and carcinogenicity in many species of animals and because of wide distribution of fungus in foodstuffs,especially peanut meals.
5. Aflatoxicosis was first recognized in 1960 in England when serious outbreaks of the intoxication occurred in turkey,since then outbreaks have been reported in ducks,swine and young cattle.
6. Aflatoxins have been found in samples of oil seeds,pulses and other food staples from various parts of world.
7. The chronic ingestion of Aflatoxins have been a major contributing in the high incidence of human liver cancer in certain areas of southeast Asia and Africa where inhabitants consume cereals,peanuts and other foodstuffs frequently infested with molds