TITLE:
A Comparative Study of Fungal and Some Aflatoxin Contents of Freshly Fried and Stored Sallah Meat from Danbatta Local Government Area of Kano State, Nigeria
AUTHORS:
Fatima S. Abdullahi, Amin O. Igwegbe, Bello A. Bello, Mamudu H. Badau, Sani Abashe, Imaan U. Igwegbe, Zainab Ali
KEYWORDS:
Danbatta, Sallah Meat, Aflatoxin, Metabolites, Fried Meat
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Medical Microbiology,
Vol.10 No.2,
June
22,
2020
ABSTRACT: A comparative study of Fungi (yeast and moulds) and their toxic
metabolites was carried out on offal and muscles of freshly fried and stored Sallah meats from rams, bulls, goats and
camels slaughtered for sacrifice in Danbatta Local Government Area, Kano State,
Nigeria. The objective was to determine the effects of frying and four weeks
storage at ambient temperatures on the mycological loads of the fried and
stored meats. A total of seventy two (72) samples of muscles and offal were
collected from six different and randomly selected households that slaughtered
and fried any of the four animals during that period. The samples were analyzed
immediately as freshly fried, and then stored for a period of four weeks during
which analyses were conducted at the second and fourth weeks. An analysis of
variance (ANOVA) was used to compare between the fungal loads and the toxin
contents in the stored meat. Results revealed the presence of Mucor, Rhizopus stolonifer, Aspergillus niger, Saccharomycetes, Penicilium spp and Aspergillus flavus; and that, Aspergillus flavus and Mucor were the highest in the frequency
of occurrence among the meat samples. The fungal counts expressed as colony
forming units (cfu) per gram of meat, ranged from lowest of 0.43 × 103 and the highest of 5.40 × 103 cfu/g in offal of camels and
goats, respectively. The results of analyses for aflatoxins revealed the
presence of the four types of aflatoxins namely: B1, B2,
G1 and G2, in very few of the samples analyzed. The
concentrations, expressed in ppb, were in the order of B1 > B2 > G2 > G1 in the muscles
and offal of the slaughtered animals; and the toxins were far below the lethal doses
recorded in literature. It was concluded that, the fungal organisms were
detected in the fried Sallah meats,
but not in significant numbers as to cause health risks to the consumers within
the short storage time.