ISOLATION AND MORPHOLOGICALLY IDENTIFICATION OF ASPERGILLUS FLAVUS INCIDENCES FROM MAIZE SEEDS IN ABUJA, NIGERIA

Food safety and security well implemented could help in making more crops available for consumption. Maize seed is a crop well known to be attacked by fungi such as Aspergillus flavus and reduce its nutrients. This study intends to isolate and morphologically identify the Aspergillus flavus from maize seeds from Abuja, Nigeria. The experimental design was complete randomized design involving untreated yellow (Y) and white (W) maize seeds from7 locations in Abuja, Nigeria. Pure culture of fungal isolate was prepared using Potato Dextrose Agar (PDA) and Sabouraud Dextrose Agar (SDA). Isolates obtained were characterized and identified on the basis of their colonial and morphological characteristics which include macroscopic and microscopic examinations. All maize seeds from the Abaji had no fungi incidences in both SDA and PDA, while all maize seeds from the experimental field show fungi incidences in both SDA and PDA. On SDA, the maize color yellow and white had F (2, 6) static values of 7.083 and 0.212 at p=0.129 and 0.941 respectively. For the PDA, white maize seeds and yellow maize seeds from all the locations had F (2, 6) static values of 0.377 and 0.521 at p=0.850 and 0.773. Aspergillus flavus was isolated in this study. The maize seeds from Kuje district and the experimental field 2 show a high incidence records. All growth of the Aspergillus in the two media used were not significant at p>0.05.