时间:2019-01-13 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2010年(六)月


英语课

Possible solution to Kenya's fatal aflatoxin outbreaks


Steve Baragona | Washington, DC 10 June 2010

 


People sharing and distributing aflasafe on a farm in Nigeria.


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International Institute of Tropical Agriculture




As Kenya suffers with another outbreak of deadly aflatoxin contamination, scientists say a harmless version of the fungus 2 that produces the toxin 1 could be a powerful ally in preventing future outbreaks.


Aflatoxin is a natural poison produced by a fungus that grows on maize 3, cassava, ground nuts, and other crops. The mold thrives in hot, humid conditions.


At high doses, aflatoxin causes liver damage that can be fatal. A 2004 outbreak in Kenya killed at least 125 people.


This month, the Kenyan government warned that at least one person had died and 2.3 million bags of maize were contaminated with the poison.


Aflatoxin is dangerous even at low doses. It can cause cancer, stunt 4 children's growth, and weaken the immune system.




Men distributing aflasafe to farmers in Nigeria.

Giving the good guys a head start


Some of the strains found in Kenya produce especially high levels of aflatoxin. But Peter Cotty, a plant disease expert with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says there also are naturally occurring strains of the fungus in Kenya that produce no aflatoxin at all.


"They occur already in the villages. They're just at low frequency," he says. "We can use techniques to find these fungi 5, and we can release them in a manner that allows them to out-compete these very high toxin-producers."


Cotty and his colleagues help the harmless fungi compete by giving them a head start over the bad guys. They grow the good guys on grains such as barley 6 or sorghum 7 that are sterilized 8 so they don't sprout 9. When farmers spread these grains among their crops, the harmless mold proliferates 10, feeding on dead plants and insects. It will "multiply and spread throughout the field and displace the toxin producers," he says.


Fighting fungus with fungus


Cotty and colleagues at the Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have registered a product called Aflasafe with Nigerian regulators. In field tests last year, farmers who used the grains coated with harmless fungi reduced aflatoxin contamination by an average of 80 percent.


U.S. farmers are also fighting fungus with fungus. For example, cotton growers need to ward 11 off aflatoxin contamination or they won't be able to sell the seeds for animal feed. Michael Braverman at Rutgers University manages a program helping 12 scientists register new natural crop protection products with U.S. regulators. He says cotton growers in the southwestern state of Arizona use the same method being tested in Nigeria.


"It's effective enough that the growers in Arizona have built their own facility to manufacture this product," he says. "They are not only consumers of the product, they are the official body that owns the registration 13."


Peter Cotty and the IITA are now looking for a partner to bring the technology to farmers in Kenya, where aflatoxin contamination is taking a terrible toll 14 on people and the economy.

 



n.毒素,毒质
  • Experts have linked this condition to a build-up of toxins in the body.专家已把这一病症与体内毒素的积累联系起来。
  • Tests showed increased levels of toxin in shellfish.检验表明水生有壳动物的毒素水平提高了。
n.真菌,真菌类植物
  • Mushrooms are a type of fungus.蘑菇是一种真菌。
  • This fungus can just be detected by the unaided eye.这种真菌只用肉眼就能检查出。
n.玉米
  • There's a field planted with maize behind the house.房子后面有一块玉米地。
  • We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
n.惊人表演,绝技,特技;vt.阻碍...发育,妨碍...生长
  • Lack of the right food may stunt growth.缺乏适当的食物会阻碍发育。
  • Right up there is where the big stunt is taking place.那边将会有惊人的表演。
n.真菌,霉菌
  • Students practice to apply the study of genetics to multicellular plants and fungi.学生们练习把基因学应用到多细胞植物和真菌中。
  • The lawn was covered with fungi.草地上到处都是蘑菇。
n.大麦,大麦粒
  • They looked out across the fields of waving barley.他们朝田里望去,只见大麦随风摇摆。
  • He cropped several acres with barley.他种了几英亩大麦。
n.高粱属的植物,高粱糖浆,甜得发腻的东西
  • We can grow sorghum or maize on this plot.这块地可以种高粱或玉米。
  • They made sorghum into pig feed.他们把高粱做成了猪饲料。
v.消毒( sterilize的过去式和过去分词 );使无菌;使失去生育能力;使绝育
  • My wife was sterilized after the birth of her fourth child. 我妻子生完第4个孩子后做了绝育手术。 来自辞典例句
  • All surgical instruments must be sterilized before use. 所有的外科手术器械在使用之前,必须消毒。 来自辞典例句
n.芽,萌芽;vt.使发芽,摘去芽;vi.长芽,抽条
  • When do deer first sprout horns?鹿在多大的时候开始长出角?
  • It takes about a week for the seeds to sprout.这些种子大约要一周后才会发芽。
激增( proliferate的名词复数 ); (迅速)繁殖; 增生; 扩散
  • The tumor proliferates, invades the uterine wall, and disseminates to remote organs. 肿瘤增殖,侵犯到子宫壁,并播散至远处的脏器。
  • We should expect the services to be more interdependent as digitization proliferates. 因为数字化技术在扩散,我们殷切希望各军种更好地相互依赖。
n.守卫,监护,病房,行政区,由监护人或法院保护的人(尤指儿童);vt.守护,躲开
  • The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
  • During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时,我要点根火把,抵挡蚊虫。
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
  • The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
  • By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
n.登记,注册,挂号
  • Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
  • What's your registration number?你挂的是几号?
n.过路(桥)费;损失,伤亡人数;v.敲(钟)
  • The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
  • The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。
学英语单词
acquaint with the market conditions
add up error
anatomicals
andys
aquatintists
battles of poitiers
bectus
black-marketeerings
bleed hole
BNL injector linac
camera range
cargo war cancellation
carvill
caseworking
Catalina coupon
chest cavities
cholesteryl ester
circumincessions
closure plan of ice wall
clump weight
cone roof tank
converted length of a locomotive
coproprietor
corrected offsets
decorative art
deskbound
draw for prize
duty allowance
electrochemical oscillation
erect spin
eupatolide
external leading
foliated
fracker
frequency magnitude coefficient
galerna
Ghaswānī
glass fiber reinforced polypropylene
Great Russia
guttierez
hereditary spinabifida
hiromurex winckworthi
hope to hell
idioted
increasing benefit loop
katunda
legis.
lithe
lobite tuberculosis
lump sinter
mail programs
makeshift device
male contact
market adminstration
master-die
methyl valerate
microcomputer types
moment change detect (mcd)
mussa
n'test
named place of destination
negativized
Nobedorm
obstruents
oxyacetylene flame
pathogens
pelletised
positive ion deterioration
punk rocker
quadricyclanes
qualitative safety goal
quinquesyllables
rated maximum pressure
RF receiver
Rhododendron dendrocharis
rohtang
roll sweep
romper rooms
saponule
scotosis
screening trommel
sensitizing
ship control and interception station
ship-breaking
simulated flame out
sir jacob epsteins
slablike
slit width
sound refraction
spiny sow thistle
St-Josse
steam chests
stood in the way of
stoog
three-phase wattmeter
tickbird
too much freedom
tsavo
useful length of screw thread
velocity sensitive transducer
window counter
wire stretcher