Figure 3.

Effect of a non-toxigenic strain (AFL-MEX02) of A. flavus when co-inoculated with a wild type toxigenic strain (AFL + MEX01) on aflatoxin B₁ production when applied as a mixed inoculum (50:50) to maize cobs of different ripening ages (R3, R4, R5) after 10 days at 30°C. The percentage values above the bars show relative reduction of AFB₁, and the values of p (<0.05) indicate evidence of difference from the control (toxigenic strain). Treatments with the same letters show no differences in the ripening stages using the Tukey’s HSD test at 5% significance. n.d. – AFB₁ reduction not detected.