Maryland, USA. The mold was cultured on Czapek agar and subcultured onto
slants of Malt Extract Agar (MEA) (Difco) for storage at 5°C. Spore inoculum was
prepared by growing A. flavus on MEA slants for 7-10 days at 25°C until
sporulation. Spores were harvested using sterile 0.1% peptone solution and the
spore load of the suspension determined using the surface plating technique.
Based on an initial count obtained (10 7 spores/ml), appropriate dilutions were
then prepared to obtain the desired inoculum level of 104 spores/ml used for the
study. This spore level was chosen since it resulted in high amounts of aflatoxin
production in previous studies on synthetic media (Ellis et al., 1993b).