[1][2] Traditionally a soil fungus, has now began to adapt to varied ecological niches, like agricultural commodities, farmed animal and marine species.

[3][4][5][6] In humans and animals the consumption of this fungus produces chronic neurotoxic, immunosuppressive, genotoxic, carcinogenic and teratogenic effects.

[10][11] Certain fungicides like mancozeb, copper oxychloride, and sulfur have inhibitory effects on the growth of this fungus and its mycotoxin producing capacities.

[4] Under this genus the species Aspergillus ochraceus was discovered by the German botanist and mycologist Karl Adolf Wilhelm in 1877.

[13] The conidia are arranged in dry, upright chains, often massing into two or more short columns per head, in wet microscopic mounts hyaline.

[6] This fungus has also been found in a wide variety of agricultural commodities like corn, peanuts, cottonseed, rice, tree nuts, cereal grains, and fruits.

[22] Significant loss in nutritive value and hazardous effect on the food chain are caused due to the same OTA toxin contamination in barley grains of Spain.

[24] Aspergillus ochraceus produces both OTA and Penicillic acid in poultry feed at optimum temperatures and moisture levels.

[26] In addition to producing enzymes, recently in a study done by Lee Ki in 2013, Aspergillus ochraceus was found to inhibit the growth of a Shiga toxin-producing bacteria called Escherichia coli (STEC) O157, implicating industrial use of this phenomenon to develop anti-bacterial drugs.

[29] The secondary metabolites of this fungus have shown to possess antibacterial activities that manifest the potential to inhibit human pathogens.

[19] For example, α- Campholene aldehyde, Lucenin-2 and 6-Ethyloct- 3-yl- 2- ethylhexyl ester are the three secondary metabolites that showed antimicrobial effects against potential human pathogens.

[7] Toxicological studies have shown OTA to have strong carcinogenic mycotoxin effects on the liver and kidney of humans.

A disease named allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, has been found to be caused due to the antigenic effects of Aspergillus ochraceus.

[8] Cases of occupational environmental hazards are also documented, due to the presence of this fungus in organic dust of poultry industry.

[9] The workers in the poultry farm, subjected to this contaminated organic dust suffer from lung inflammation and decreased pulmonary function.

[33] Low levels of Aspergillus ochraceus contamination caused mycotoxic nephropathy in farm pigs and chickens from Bulgaria.

[1] Fungicides like mancozeb, copper oxychloride, and sulfur inhibit Aspergillus ochraceus growth at appropriate doses, temperature and time.

[39] In a very similar fashion, some essential oils extracted from aromatic plants, have shown to have fungicidal effects on Aspergillus ochraceus that colonized pulses.

[42] Dietary exposure to OTA today is mainly a result of failures during processing and conservation procedures used by food industries.

Improper agricultural technology, storage and transport practices as well as method of processing food are key checkpoints to avoid toxic consumption of OTA.