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- Title
Minimum Temperature, Rainfall, and Agronomic Management Impacts on Corn Grain Aflatoxin Contamination.
- Authors
Damianidis, Damianos; Ortiz, Brenda V.; Bowen, Kira L.; Windham, Gary. L.; Hoogenboom, Gerrit; Hagan, Austin; Knappenberger, Thorsten; Abbas, Hamed K.; Scully, Brian T.; Mourtzinis, Spyridon
- Abstract
Aflatoxins are a group of toxins produced by fungi found on corn (Zea mays L.). Aflatoxin contamination can make it unmarketable. Fortunately, management practices that reduce stress during critical growth stages lessen contamination. A study was conducted at Fairhope, AL (2010-2014), and Prattville, AL (2013-2014), to evaluate the effect of planting dates, plant densities, and in-season weather conditions on preharvest aflatoxin contamination. The experiment had a split-split-plot design replicated six times, with inoculation method assigned to the main plots, planting date to the subplots, and planting density to the sub-subplots. Results showed that delaying planting from mid-March to mid-April reduced aflatoxin levels and increasing the planting density from 44,480 to 74,130 plants ha-1 did not impact toxin accumulation. Multiple linear regression indicated that minimum air temperature and rainfall models could explain from 50 to 76% of the observed aflatoxin variability. However, the effect of both variables on aflatoxin contamination levels changed during the period presilking (14 d prior) to physiological maturity. Minimum temperature alone had the strongest positive influence on aflatoxin over the 2 wk after mid-silk. A reduction in rainfall during 2 wk prior mid-silk and from Day 43 after mid-silk to physiological maturity resulted on high aflatoxin contamination levels. In conclusion, a better understanding of the influence of weather variables on corn contamination may lead to better crop management and development of more accurate prediction systems.
- Subjects
AFLATOXINS; FOOD contamination
- Publication
Agronomy Journal, 2018, Vol 110, Issue 5, p1697
- ISSN
0002-1962
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2134/agronj2017.11.0628