Usuario Discusión:Daniel.chavez
De Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre
Mycotoxins in food in Africa
Mycotoxins in food in Africa
Mycotoxins, like aflatoxin, and recently others, have been recognized as an important public health hazard. Why would an institution like IITA, where the 'A' stands for agriculture, participate in a workshop concerning a public health issue, apart from offering the conference facilities? There are indeed very compelling reasons, which I would like to outline.
To alleviate the problems caused by mycotoxins, it is not just enough to treat the afflicted patients. We need to find lasting solutions to prevent the problems in the first place. These solutions have to be found in the way we produce and store food crops that are the basis of this problem. Thus, solutions have to come from agriculture, and they have to be found also for the people of the tropics, not only for those in Europe and America, where aflatoxins are closely monitored. Moreover, the problem is such that lasting solutions can probably only be found through close international cooperation. In conclusion, IITA is implicated in these studies and their implementation with all its letters!
Aflatoxin has been recognized as a food poison and carcinogen for about twenty years. Yet no lasting solutions (apart from sanitation) have been found in industrialized countries which often are also important food exporters. IITA's clients are the small-scale farmers of tropical Africa. Controlling and policing food production under these conditions is very difficult. It is therefore most likely that the solutions to mycotoxin problems to be found for and with these farmers will be substantially different from those being implemented abroad.
Recognizing and publicizing the problem will be a contribution in itself. This will alert breeders to the dangers of mycotoxins, forcing them to introduce tests for mycotoxin susceptibility into their breeding programs. Thus, an inadvertent increase in susceptibility to aflatoxin in higher yielding varieties would be avoided. IITA's Plant Health Management Division (PHMD) has a program where scientists work with breeders on host plant resistance. We certainly shall alert our colleagues about the outcome of this workshop.
Most contributions to a solution to mycotoxin production in our farming systems will come in the first place from proper habitat management. This is the domain of the second program of PHMD.
Recent studies suggest that the fungi responsible for mycotoxin production, e.g. Aspergillus, can be controlled through biological control, the subject of the third PHMD program. In this program, our colleagues work in classical biological control utilizing organisms of higher trophic levels which feed on the target pest. We are well aware that biological control in fungi is more a question of niche occupancy and competitive displacement than of predatory feeding. In the biological control program we also have a project using the fungus Metarhizium flavoviride. Many of the problems of producing, storing, applying and monitoring non-toxic strains of Aspergillus have been tackled also for Metarhizium, and I am sure there will be good synergism between the two projects.
Finally, PHMD has its own technology testing and training unit which, under the umbrella of the International Cooperation Division of IITA, assures professional linkages and collaboration with the national programs as equal partners. We are just now renegotiating a three year extension for this unit and hope that its expertise in working with national programs will be also used in mycotoxin work by IITA scientists and by those from the organizations present at this symposium.
I hope I have demonstrated that IITA has skills and comparative advantages that will make it a valid partner in collaboration with the assembled sixteen or so organizations, from whom we hope to learn much.
So much for IITA's scientific involvement. We would also like to assure your well-being here in Cotonou. If there are hitches, and there will certainly be some, we ask for your patience and indulgence. Please bring your concerns to the attention of the organizers. Raffael de Santos will assist you throughout the workshop. Otherwise, Stanislas Hacheme, Jacob Quaye and, particularly, Kitty Cardwell, our scientist in charge of mycotoxin research, will be available for problem-solving.
I thank you for having come all the way to Cotonou and the confidence you manifested in IITA by doing so, and hope you will have fruitful discussions. I particularly thank Danida for sponsoring the workshop and hope you will all be satisfied with the outcome, which should translate into implementable research results and, eventually, better rural welfare.
[editar] Bienvenida
| Hola, Daniel.chavez. Te damos la bienvenida a Wikipedia en español | |||
| Hola, Daniel.chavez. Gracias por participar en el proyecto. Esperamos que la colaboración te resulte agradable y que aproveches tu estancia por aquí. | |||
| Wikipedia en español es una enciclopedia de contenido libre que surgió en mayo de 2001; desde entonces se han establecido varios principios definidos por la comunidad. Por favor, tómate un tiempo para explorar los temas siguientes, antes de comenzar a editar en Wikipedia. | |||
| Los cinco pilares de Wikipedia Lineamientos generales a saber |
Ayuda Manual general de Wikipedia |
||
| Tutorial Aprender a editar paso-a-paso en un instante |
Zona de pruebas Para que realices pruebas de edición |
||
| Programa de tutoría. Solicita ayuda personalizada en tus primeros pasos |
Aprende a editar páginas Guía de edición de páginas wiki |
||
| Cosas que no se deben hacer Resumen de errores más comunes a evitar |
Preguntas más frecuentes Preguntas que toda la gente hace |
||
| Las políticas de Wikipedia Estándares y reglas aprobadas por la comunidad |
Café Donde puedes preguntar a otros wikipedistas |
||
 Ésta es tu página de discusión, en la cual puedes recibir mensajes de otros wikipedistas. Para dejar un mensaje a otro wikipedista debes escribir en su página de discusión, si no, no será notificado. Al final del mensaje debes firmar escribiendo cuatro ~~~~ o presionando el botón mostrado en la imagen. Recuerda que los artículos no se firman. |
|||
Esperamos que pases buenos momentos en Wikipedia.
Esos textos mejor los creas en una subpágina de tu página de usuario, como Usuario:Daniel.chavez/Prueba ▩ Platnides ⋖discutir
⋗ 20:30 24 mar 2006 (CET)
[editar] Ediciones en Tractores de un solo eje
Hola Daniel! Veo que has estado haciendo pruebas de edición en este artículo, pero debes tener en cuenta que no es el lugar para hacerlo. Si lo deseas, podés experimentar todo lo que quieras en Wikipedia:Zona de pruebas, que es el lugar previsto para ello y donde nadie te dirá nada. Saludos! --Schummy (discusión) 18:02 25 mar 2006 (CET)
