Ammonia Treatment to Destroy Aflatoxins in Corn.

Aflatoxin contamination of corn can result in financial disaster to farmers, and is a serious health hazard to both livestock and human populations. Atmospheric ammoniation of contaminated corn appears to be an economically feasible detoxification procedure. Feeding trials conducted in livestock, and relay toxicity studies in which meat or egg tissue from the corn-fed livestock was fed to rats, have not revealed any adverse effects produced by ammoniation of contaminated corn. However, complete histopathologic examinations have not been completed. Other studies, including feeding corn to rats for 21 months, dosing rats with single doses of corn containing large quantities of ammoniated aflatoxin by-products, and using radiolabelled aflatoxin to determine tissue distribution and excretion of ammoniated aflatoxin, have indicated that ammoniation is an effective method for salvaging aflatoxin-contaminated corn.