The remote monitoring of aflatoxin levels in grain corn relative to temperature and humidity
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Abstract
Aflatoxin contamination of grain-based animal feeds in silos presents a food security concern, since animals feeding on aflatoxin-contaminated feed may have reduced productivity. Aflatoxins are produced by several members of the genus Aspergillus. Malaysia's tropical climate provides suitable conditions for Aspergillus spp. proliferation and subsequent aflatoxin production. Therefore, throughout a two-week storage period, a remote monitoring system was used to record the temperature and humidity data inside downscaled corn silos under two conditions: indoor (control) and outdoor. The temperature and humidity recorded for outdoor storage were 25.3°C to 33.6°C and 65.4°C to 69.6%, respectively, while those for indoor storage were 25.1°C to 28.7°C and 64.9% to 65.7%, respectively. The average moisture content of grain corn before storage was significantly lower (2.86 ± 0.03%) than in outdoor (3.523 ± 0.012%) and indoor (3.908 ± 0.002%) silos. Aflatoxin levels before and after storage were below the detection level even under favourable conditions. However, mycological analyses showed higher fungal loads for Fusarium spp. and Penicillium spp. following the two-week storage. The present work demonstrated that different storage conditions could affect fungal loads in grain corn in downscale silos.
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