Maize is one of the most important ingredients of animal feed formulations.
Fusarium species are important pathogens of maize, causing various diseases,
and contamination of maize kernel by mycotoxins including trichothecenes,
zearalenone and fumonisins. Aspergillus and Penicillium species and their
mycotoxins including aflatoxins, ochratoxins, fumonisins and patulin are also
frequently encountered on cereal products. We investigated the occurrence of
these species and their mycotoxins on maize in various maize growing areas in
Hungary in 2010 and 2011 years after harvest. Surface-sterilized cereal seeds
were placed on selective media, and the isolated fungal strains were identified
using morphological methods. 81.94% and 14.33% of the samples were found to
be contaminated with potentially toxigenic isolates in 2010 and 2011,
respectively. Species identifications of selected isolates have been carried out
using sequence-based methods. Regarding Fusarium species, in 2010, when
the weather was rainy, F. graminearum and F. subglutinans dominated, while in
2011 with hot and dry summer F. verticillioides was the predominant species
identified. F. culmorum could not be detected in any of the samples. Regarding
Aspergilli, several Aspergillus flavus isolates were identified, which are potential
aflatoxin producers. Besides, other mycotoxin producer species were also
isolated, including black Aspergilli which potentially produce ochratoxins and
fumonisins, and A. clavatus, which produces patulin. Other genera (Alternaria,
Nigrospora, Epicoccum, Cladosporium) were found in smaller proportions.
Besides, the protective maize endophyte Acremonium zeae was also identified
in some of the samples. Further studies are in progress to examine the
mycotoxin producing abilities of the isolates, mycotoxin content of the maize
samples, and the applicability of Acremonium zeae isolates for lowering fungal
burden and mycotoxin contamination of maize