*2.5.6. Managing mycotoxigenic fungi with other microorganisms*

The use of biological control agents to manage mycotoxigenic fungi has been reported. Atoxigenic *F. verticillioides* strains competitively excluded FUM-producing strains and prevented them from producing FUM [103]. When these strains were applied by themselves through the silk channel, however, they resulted in high levels of FER. The effective control of toxigenic *F. verticillioides* and *F. proliferatum* by non-toxigenic *Fusarium* species in maize residues has also been observed [104]. Most success, however, has been achieved with the use of atoxigenic strains of *A. flavus* to control toxigenic *A. flavus* and *A. parasiticus*. When introduced into the soil, these atoxigenic strains reduced AF contamination of peanuts in the USA by 74.3–99.9% [105]. Atoxigenic *A. flavus* strains are now widely used to control AF in maize in several African countries (www.aflatoxinpartnership.org). Endophytic bacteria have been reported to control FUM-producing fungi by competitive exclusion [106], while *Trichoderma* strains controlled them through competition for nutrients and space, fungistasis, antibiosis, rhizosphere modification, mycoparasitism, biofertilisation and the stimulation of plant-defence mechanisms [107].
