The aflatoxins were discovered in the late 1950s and early1960s, when they were identified as causative agents of‘‘turkey X’’ disease, an epidemic involving deaths of numerousturkey poults, ducklings, and chicks fed diets containing certainlots of peanut meal originating in South America (Blount1961). Investigations revealed that toxicity was associated withthe presence of Aspergillus flavus, and further that extracts ofcultures of the fungus isolated from the meal were capableof inducing the ‘‘turkey X’’ syndrome. The name ‘‘aflatoxin’’(A. flavus toxin) was accordingly assigned to the toxic agents.Subsequent studies of A. flavus–contaminated groundnut extractsconfirmed that these agents were capable of inducing acute liverdisease in ducklings and liver cancer in rats (Lancaster et al. 1961;Sargeant et al. 1961)
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