Mycotoxin Contamination of Meadow Grasses in European Russia

Abstract

A b s t r a c tA toxicity of plants eaten by animals at grazing land is shown to be complicated with various causes and clinical manifestations. In addition to phytotoxins and «infection» factors carried onto the plants by the insects (e.g., bacterial corynetoxins), the toxic metabolites of endophytic and epiphytic fungi are considered to play the significant role. Based on early understanding, the local risks for cattle, sheep and horses during grazing and stable periods were caused mainly by ergotism, myrothecio-and fusariotoxicoses. Then, for a long time a mycotoxicological evaluation of local grass feeds was not carried out. To date, there is the only one study indicating differences between contaminations of the wild-growing gramineous plants and cultivated cereal crops (A.A. Burkin et al., 2010). The aim of the paper was to summarize our data of assaing 517 meadow grass samples from natural pastures and haying places in European Russia undertaken for the first time to determine contamination with mycotoxins. The spikes of fescue Festuca sp., couch grass Elytrigia repens (L.), timothy Phleum sp., and other locally occurring gramineous plants were selected in North Karelia, Tverskaya, Leningradskaya and Astrakhanskaya regions for July-October 2011. For summer and autumn 2014 collections the aboveground parts of gramineous plants and legumes were taken from Moskovskaya, Tverskaya, Astrakhanskaya regions and North Karelia. The average samples of the field sets of hay were obtained from the animal farms of Moskovskaya region from December 2013 up to April 2014. A multiple combined contamination of grassland gramineous plants and legumes by the mycotoxins was detected, particularly we have found the Fusarium fungi metabolites T-2 toxin (T-2), diacetoxyscirpenol (DAS), deoxynivalenol (DON), zearalenone (ZEN), fumonisins (FUM), the Alternaria metabolite alternariol (AOL), the Myrothecium metabolite roridin A (RoA), the «storage fungi» metabolites aflatoxin B 1 (AB 1 ), sterigmatocystin (STE), cyclopiazonic acid (CPA), emodin (EMO), ochratoxin A (OA), citrinin (CIT), mycophenolic acid (MPA), PR-toxin (PR), and also the ergot alkaloids (EA). The common trend to changing the component composition and content of mycotoxins was revealed for collected samples of gramineous plants from Moskovskaya and Tverskaya regions (June-September) such as reed grass Calamagrostis sp., crested dog's tail Cynosurus cristatus L., sweet vernal grass Anthoxanthum odoratum L., cock's foot Dactylis glomerata L., bromegrass Bromus sp., bluegrass Poa sp., oats Avena sativa L., fescue Festuca sp., bentgrass Agrostis sp., couch grass Elytrigia repens (L.), timothy Phleum sp., bristly foxtail grass Setaria sp. The complex of all examined mycotoxins was found to be formed in plants during early growing period (June). Moreover, AOL, STE, CPA and EMO were detected almost in all locations (80-98 % of samples), whereas DAS, EA, AB 1 , OA, STE and MPA occurred rarely (50-70 %). This period, in contrast to subsequent ones, was characterized by low le...

Mycotoxins in the Legumes of Natural Fodder of the European Russia

“…In the present study, for meadow clover and white clover, the results have been confirmed of which we have already reported [17]. Data on the prevalence of mycotoxins in vetches, peas, sweetclovers, alfalfa, lupine and goat's rue were obtained for the first time.…”

“…For meadow clover, the results coincided with those described earlier [17]. In the preliminary study in 2014, conducted on a collection of 35 samples in the Moscow, Tver regions and the Republic of Karelia, mycotoxins were represented by 12-15 components in all habitats and in different periods of vegetation (July, August and September), and the EMO content was kept ultrahigh (up to 27,540 μg/kg).…”

“…Moreover, the MPA level did not exceed 100 μg/kg. Thus, a large-scale mycotoxicological study confirmed the earlier conclusion [17] about clear advantages of white clover, the main component of pastures throughout the European Russia and in Siberia, over meadow clover. Members of genus Vicia, the bush vetch and tufted vetch, had similarities in the frequency of detection of the majority of mycotoxins, but in tufted vetch there was a tendency to a decrease in this parameter, especially noticeable for FUM (Table 4).…”

“…The possibility of intensive accumulation of STE (up to 2320 g/kg), noted earlier for Vicia spp. [17], was also characteristic of tufted vetch (see Table 4). By the levels of fusariotoxins DAS, DON, ZEN and a number of other toxins, the species did not differ, the maximum content of DAS (1035 μg/kg) in the Vicia spp.…”

“…One of the solutions is a survey of wide samples of a botanically representative homogeneous material with regard to the areas of growth and the phases of vegetation. Recently, in meadow grasses this approach allowed to obtain the first information on the main carriers of toxicological load among wild cereals and to characterize the mycotoxin complex in some leguminous plants [17].…”