Mycotoxins : an ongoing challenge to food safety and security

Abstract

Mycotoxins have influenced human and animal health for centuries, often with serious and sometimes deadly consequences. The earliest known cases are outbreaks of ergotism in medieval Europe, caused by alkaloids from Claviceps purpurea growing on rye. These epidemics, called “St Anthony’s fire”, produced convulsions, gangrene and death. Ergot-infected grain has also been suggested as a possible factor behind the symptoms recorded during the Salem witch trials in 1692. During the Second World War, people in Russia consumed overwintered grain infected by trichothecene-producing Fusarium species. This led to the alimentary toxic aleukia epidemic, one of the best-documented examples of human mycotoxicosis. Such outbreaks demonstrate the longstanding impact of mycotoxins on societies.