title: Aflatoxin regulations and global pistachio trade: insights from social network analysis.
abstract: Aflatoxins, carcinogenic toxins produced by Aspergillus fungi, contaminate maize, peanuts, and tree nuts in many regions of the world. Pistachios are the main source of human dietary aflatoxins from tree nuts worldwide. Over 120 countries have regulations for maximum allowable aflatoxin levels in food commodities. We developed social network models to analyze the association between nations' aflatoxin regulations and global trade patterns of pistachios from 1996-2010. The main pistachio producing countries are Iran and the United States (US), which together contribute to nearly 75% of the total global pistachio market. Over this time period, during which many nations developed or changed their aflatoxin regulations in pistachios, global pistachio trade patterns changed; with the US increasingly exporting to countries with stricter aflatoxin standards. The US pistachio crop has had consistently lower levels of aflatoxin than the Iranian crop over this same time period. As similar trading patterns have also been documented in maize, public health may be affected if countries without aflatoxin regulations, or with more relaxed regulations, continually import crops with higher aflatoxin contamination. Unlike the previous studies on maize, this analysis includes a dynamic element, examining how trade patterns change over time with introduction or adjustment of aflatoxin regulations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Travis R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Bui-Klimke
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics and Public Health Dynamics Laboratory, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Hasan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guclu
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Thomas W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Kensler
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
authors.forename: Jian-Min
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition and Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Felicia
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D000348:Aflatoxins / Q000032:analysis*; D003132:Commerce / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural; D005062:European Union; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D007492:Iran; D027927:Pistacia / Q000382:microbiology*; D012015:Reference Standards; D060756:Social Networking; D014481:United States; D027843:Vitis
chemical_list: D000348:Aflatoxins