World Mycotoxin Journal

The World Mycotoxin Journal is a peer-reviewed scientific journal with only one specific area of focus: the promotion of the science of mycotoxins. The journal contains original research papers and critical reviews in all areas dealing with mycotoxins and its impact to human and animal health, together with opinions, a calendar of forthcoming mycotoxin-related events and book reviews. The journal takes a multidisciplinary approach, and it focuses on a broad spectrum of issues, including human and animal toxicology, risk assessment, worldwide occurrence, modelling and prediction of toxin formation, genomics, molecular biology for control of mycotoxigenic fungi, pre-and post-harvest prevention and control, analytical methodology and sampling, analytical methodology and quality assurance, food technology, economics and regulatory issues. The World Mycotoxin Journal is intended to serve the needs of researchers and professionals from the scientific community and industry, as well as of policy makers and regulators.

Topics dealt by the World Mycotoxin Journal are:
- Human and animal nutrition and health effects, including cases of mycotoxicosis
- Latest discoveries in mycotoxin toxicology and toxicokinetics
- Trends in modelling and prediction of mycotoxin formation
- The latest information on major mycotoxins and emerging problems in the food and feed chain
- Strategies for pre- and postharvest prevention and control
- International developments and regulatory issues
- The economic impact of mycotoxins
- Application of genomics in mycotoxin research
- Molecular biology for control of mycotoxigenic fungi
- Decontamination and detoxification solutions
- New developments in mycotoxin sampling analysis and analytical quality assurance, including reference materials
- Worldwide cases of occurrence and exposure to mycotoxins (papers dealing with locally purchased commodities are usually not published)

Editorial statement
Mycotoxin-caused diseases (mycotoxicoses) have been recognised for a long time. History is replete with evidence of mycotoxin-associated poisoning incidents, such as ergot-induced 'Holy fire' in the Middle Ages and trichothecene-caused 'Alimentary Toxic Aleukia' in Russia in World War II. Despite these examples, mycotoxicoses remained 'neglected diseases', until 1960 when 'Turkey X disease' broke out in Great Britain. More than 100,000 turkeys died due to aflatoxins in the feed. In the following period much information has become known about aflatoxins and many other mould-produced toxins have been discovered. Multidisciplinary in-depth research targeted on developing knowledge about many aspects of mycotoxins, have resulted in tens of thousands of publications, several dozens of relevant books and dedicated workshops and conferences. It has become evident that probably no edible substance can be regarded as absolutely free from possible mycotoxin contamination, considering that mycotoxin production can occur in the field, during harvest, processing, storage and shipment of a given commodity. It has become clear that mycotoxins have profound effects on human and animal health, as well as on food security.

The creation of the World Mycotoxin Journal witnesses the continuous and intensive interest of the scientific community for the multi-faceted subject area of mycotoxins, and of the many activities that take place, e.g. those undertaken by international organisations and within thematic interlaboratory research and networking projects. The journal aims to bring together those active in various disciplines and to offer a platform for the publication of scientific work on mycotoxins, and for the discussion and debate of its contents. It has the ambition of strengthening the networks of mycotoxin experts and of contributing significantly to the combat of these silent threats to human and animal health. The World Mycotoxin Journal has the ambition to be the most up-to-date international journal for those who need to be informed of the latest and most important developments in the field.