Level of Mycotoxins Consumption and Burden of Aflatoxin-Induced Hepatocellular Carcinoma in People subsisting on sorghum based products in Nigeria: A Risk Assessment.
Abstract
The level of risk associated with the preponderance of hepatocellular carcinoma due to consumption of Sorghum based product is evaluated in this study. Sorghum is a local grain that is widely consumed in Northern Nigeria and other parts of the world. A quantitative food frequency questionnaire (QFFQ) was used to sample sorghum based products while delineation method was employed in the sampling of the sorghum samples. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was employed to determine mycotoxin concentration in both the raw and processed samples. The burden of aflatoxin induced Hepato cellular carcinoma (HCC) in communities that subsist on sorghum and sorghum-based products was determined from the amount of mycotoxins consumed by respondents from different age groups. With the exemption of zearalenone from the Southern guinea savannah (SGS) that was observed to increase by 272.3% in pap (kamu/ogi) sample and aflatoxin and ochratoxin in porridge sample from the Sudan savannah that was observed to increase by 70.0 and 66.7% respectively, there was a significant difference (P = 0.05) between the concentration of the mycotoxins in the raw and the processed sorghum samples in all the agro-ecological zones. The processing methods employed does not appear to have effect in reducing the toxin level below the PTDI and TDI levels set by the regulatory agencies. Average daily consumption of sorghum based products based on age range was found to be increasing in ascending order for the infants, children, adults and elderly respectively. The incidence and burden of aflatoxin induced HCC in the HbeAg and the HbsAg populations alarmingly high and appeared to be dependent on increasing humidity. Despite the nutritional value of sorghum as a source of food and feed material, its contamination by fungi and fungal metabolites calls for urgent mitigation strategies to avoid health emergencies particularly in the poverty stricken countries of the sub Saharan Africa.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.17509/jafn.v6i1.80532
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