September 9, 2010

A newly devised computer model and rapid screening tests are now being used by Norwegian grain dealers to improve control of toxins in cereal crops.

The new testing is the result of collaboration between researchers at the Norwegian Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research (Bioforsk).

"This is one of the grain industry's biggest advances in many years," says grain supervisor Hans Stokke, of Felleskjøpet Agri, the country's largest grain dealer and feed producer.

Mycotoxins - a group of naturally-occurring toxins - in grain have been a growing plight to Norwegian agriculture in recent years.

The alarm first sounded when high mycotoxin concentrations were discovered in 2004, primarily in oats. After the grain harvest of 2009, some 55,000 tonnes of oats with excessive mycotoxin content have had to remain in storage.

In cereal crops, the fungus Fusarium produces mycotoxins which in concentrations too large are harmful to humans and animals. It is important that each grain lot is checked for excessive mycotoxin levels before it is dumped into an enormous silo or grain factory.

But no suitable rapid screening test existed for checking a grain load at the grain factories.

In 2006, a project to find a suitable test was launched by Bioforsk's Plant Health and Plant Protection Division, grain industry players and others. This has been one of several mycotoxin projects funded under the Food Programme within the research area of food safety.

The mycotoxin problems have hit the feed industry particularly hard. Pigs, horses and poultry are most vulnerable to high concentrations of mycotoxins, while ruminants have higher tolerance.

"Mycotoxins in grain are a significant setback internationally and are becoming more and more problematic in Norway and the Nordic region," explains Head of Research Dr Sonja Klemsdal of Bioforsk's Plant Health and Plant Protection Division.

The end result of the research is a test regime targetted at Norwegian climate and growing methods.

The rapid screening test in combination with the computational model means focus can be brought to bear on grain from fields with the highest risk of mycotoxins.