The effects of T-2 toxin on the prevalence and development of Kashin-Beck disease in China: a meta-analysis and systematic review

Li D, Han J, Guo X, Qu C, Yu F, Wu X · Toxicology Research

The competing explanation, and the reason selenium is not the settled answer: mycotoxin contamination of stored grain tracks with Kashin-Beck prevalence and disease development, in a body of evidence large enough to pool. Selenium deficiency and fungal contamination co-occur in the same poor, damp, isolated farming regions, so the two hypotheses are hard to separate epidemiologically.

Population

Studies of T-2 toxin detection in food and Kashin-Beck disease prevalence in China

Intervention

Exposure to the trichothecene mycotoxin T-2 from fungal grain contamination

Comparator

Lower or absent exposure

Limitations

Ecological data pooled across studies of varying quality, with exposure measured in food samples rather than in people.