by Dr. Tom Isakeit, Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist

The website, cornmycotoxins.com, has recently added publications on different aspects of mycotoxin contamination of corn, including management with atoxigenic strains. This is a national website devoted to providing information about corn mycotoxins and their management, with contributions from several universities and agencies, including Texas AgriLife Extension Service. The website already has a section on corn ear rot identification (Figure 1) and mycotoxin FAQs. The section on ear rot management is divided into four regional categories. The “Southwest” category includes recommendations tailored to Texas and Oklahoma. As the multi-state consortium (Texas A&M, Purdue, North Carolina State University) concludes coordinated, multi-year experiments evaluating the impact of atoxigenic Aspergillus strains, GMO traits and fungicides on aflatoxin and fumonisin contamination of corn, the results will be published on this website.

Figure 1. Ear rot fungi on corn, from left to right: Aspergillus flavus, Penicillium species, and Aspergillus niger. A flavus can produce aflatoxin in corn. Te other two fungi do not produce mycotoxins in corn.

Thomas Isakeit, Ph.D.
Professor and Extension Plant Pathologist
College Station, TX
t-isakeit@exchange.tamu.edu