Microbiological quality of grain cultivated in the North Caucasus region in 2019

¹ Laboratory of Mycology and Phytopathology, All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection, St. Petersburg, Pushkin 196608, Russia
² Mycotoxicology Laboratory, All-Russia Research Institute of Veterinary Sanitation, Hygiene, and Ecology – Skryabin and Kovalenko Federal Scientific Center All-Russia Research Institute of Experimental Veterinary Medicine, 123022 Moscow, Russia
³ Department of Landscape Agriculture, Chechen Research Institute of Agriculture, Grozny, Gikalo village 366021, Russia

^* Corresponding author: t.gagkaeva@mail.ru

Abstract

The microbiological quality of 23 grain samples of wheat and barley harvested in the North Caucasus in 2019 was analysed on the basis of the percentage of grains infected by fungi and the amounts of trichothecene-producing Fusarium DNA and Alternaria DNA. The mycotoxins produced by these fungi were also determined. Alternaria and Fusarium fungi were the predominant fungi in the mycobiota of grain, accounting for at 93% and 14% of the observed fungi, respectively. Alternariol produced by Alternaria fungi was detected in 65% of samples, and its content (11-675 ppb) was positively correlated with the abundance of fungi of section Alternaria in grain. F. langsethiae was found in wheat grain from the Chechen Republic for the first time. The T-2 toxin produced by this fungus was found in 25% of samples, and its content in one barley grain reached 650 ppb, which exceeded the permitted level for this mycotoxin. The mycotoxins deoxynivalenol and zearalenone, which are mainly produced by F. graminearum, were also identified in 13% of the grain samples. The positive correlation between the amounts of both these mycotoxins and the DNA of Tri-Fusarium was established.