LAHORE, June 12: The World Trade Organisation’s Quality Control Lab and the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences’ Institute of Continuing Education and Extension arranged a five-day workshop on “Food and Feed Security: Extraction and Quantification of Aflatoxin” in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission.

Speaking at the workshop’s closing ceremony on Tuesday, King Edward Medical University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mumtaz Hasan said the technical manpower like doctors and veterinarians was the asset of the country. He said the university was playing a vital role in training manpower to produce quality feed for livestock, poultry and fish and food for human beings.

University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Nawaz spoke about the hazards of mycotoxins in animals and human beings. He urged the lab staff to organise short courses on detection of mycotoxins in feed and evolve a strategy to neutralise their effects on animals and poultry. He said that workshop participants had been trained in handling samples, preparing standards for Aflatoxins and qualitative and quantitative detection of Aflatoxin though TLC and HPLC techniques. He said the workshop was aimed at producing manpower to deal with mycotoxins containing feed ingredients and their qualitative and quantitative detection in analytical laboratories.

Later, Prof Hasan and Prof Nawaz distributed certificates among workshop participants, including veterinarians, researchers and disease investigation officers from public and private organisations of Punjab and NWFP.