Helica Biosytems announced this week that the company will offer analytical kits for aflatoxin detection at deep discounts for scientists in universities and research institutions in all African countries.
We had the opportunity to participate at the Partners for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) meeting in Addis Ababa in November 2014, company leaders learned about the multiple-pronged projects working toward aflatoxin control on the continent.
“Realizing the amount of work that needs to be done, and that limited funding in some member states may delay much needed studies, Helica is offering kits at deeply discounted prices. Please contact us with requirements for your studies, and we will work as your partners to help you meet you goals. By doing so, we play our part in realizing an Africa free from the harmful effects of aflatoxins,” the company said in a letter.
This offer is to encourage and facilitate surveillance work and other research studies to be conducted widely to protect agricultural products, livestock and human subjects. One of the tools is analytical testing that would yield the hard data needed to continue studying the prevalence of aflatoxin, plan mitigation projects and maintain and/or set up national standards and policies in AU member countries.
Based on the ELISA platform, a wide variety of test kits are available for the detection of aflatoxins, ochratoxin A, deoxynivalenol (DON), fumonisin and zearalenone. Aflatoxin kits include total aflatoxins and aflatoxin B1 for grains, nuts, animal feed and a variety of foods as well as aflatoxin M1 for milk and dairy products. Close to 40 agricultural and food products have been validated to date and more studies are underway.
In addition, Helica Biosystems also offers aflatoxin M1 detection kits in urine for studying prevalence of aflatoxin in human subjects and livestock. Click here for a full listing.
Helica is a research-based developer and manufacturer of in vitro analytical test kits and has been supplying kits to scientists across the world. Check out some of the research done with Helica kits here.
To find out more about the discounts, contact: Thu Huynh at thu@helica.com or Wondu Wolde-Mariam at wondu@helica.com