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March 2009 Articles

Just Rambling September 2013
Vaccination Guidelines – Developing a Vaccination Plan 
• Researchers make strides in controlling aflatoxin
Crazy ant population explodes in Baton Rouge
Bermudagrass Stem Maggot Farm
USDA Promotes Conservation Programs-Louisiana Farmers Participate in Conservatio
Cattle prices expected to hold, might improve
Less Obvious Market Impacts of the Zilmax® Situation
Nutrition Key for Conception and Weaning Percentages
USDA and Arkansas Livestock and Poultry Commission Request the Help of Arkansas
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation—Presidents Column Congressional Reces
Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation—Presidents Column 2013 Crop on Par fo
LGLCI Hosting Healing the Land and Building Soil Health Workshop
Tips and Advice for Choosing a Bit When Breaking a Horse
Spiritual Corner
Just Rambling:
Field day features cattle procedures, winter forage
How Fast Can the Beef Cow Herd Be Rebuilt?
Effect of Corn- and Soybean Hull-Based Creep Feed and Backgrounding Diets on L
Slaughter Cow Considerations for Fall 2013
Specialist recommends new, affordable technology for cattle production
LSU and LSU AgCenter dairy programs to consolidate
AFBF Objects to Inflammatory Attacks in Privacy Suit
Louisiana part of multistate study to test arsenic in ri
Strain Responds to EPA Withdrawal of Data Collection Proposal
Strain Named Secretary-Treasurer of NASDA
AFBF Endorses House Waterways Bill
Statement by Bob Stallman, President, American Farm Bureau Federation, Regarding
More Corn, Smaller Soybean Stocks Predicted
Poultry farmers learn better practices at
It’s time to think about landscape planning
Changing eating habits can aid weight loss
My Granny’s Cinnamon Biscuits
Emergency Numbers
WHERE DO I STAND
Controlling External Parasites Source: University of Arkansas
AgCenter scientists give updates to farmers at field day
AFBF: Death Tax Repeal Act ‘Gets the Job Done’
Weather Challenges Reflected in June WASDE Report
Poultry owners should take steps to keep flocks secure
Arrests Made in Morehouse Parish Cattle Thefts June 20, 2013 
Strain: Hire Licensed Horticulture Professionals
ade trees reduce summer cooling bills
Easy Strawberry Cake
Things God Won’t Ask
Cool-Season Pasture and Forage Varieties Variety Selection
AgCenter computer center dedicated Writer:
Irrigate yards, landscapes, trees correctly during hot summer month
Louisiana Agriculture Facts:
Technology brings precision to the farm
Farm Bill Update
AFBF Files Suit to Protect Farmers’ Privacy
AFBF, 400 Others Call for House Immigration Reform
Farmers Wisdom:
The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture
La. sweet potato acreage continues to decline
The Voice of Louisiana Agriculture
For ranchers, soil’s organic matter, matters
The Good that Still Exist
Chicken Enchilada Dip

(60 articles found)

Archives by Months

Researchers make strides in controlling aflatoxin

Researchers make strides in controlling aflatoxin Writer: Rick Bogren at 225-578-5839 or rbogren@agcenter.lsu.edu
BATON ROUGE, La. – Louisiana corn farmers learned a tough lesson in 1998 when aflatoxin showed up in amounts that caused significant problems.
Over the years, researchers have learned much about aflatoxin and Aspergillus flavus, the fungus that produces it. They also have learned that not all strains produce the toxin, and those can actually inhibit the strains that produce it.
“We’ve been looking for specificity and finding which strains are effective inhibitors and their characteristics that differentiate these strains,” said LSU AgCenter plant pathologist Ken Damann.
This has set the stage for the use of biocontrols – nontoxic strains of A. flavus that can get into the corn plant and prevent the toxin from being produced.
The window for A. flavus to enter the kernels is from about midsilking to a week or two after, Damann said.
“It’s important that the spores from the nontoxic strain are present and infect first,” Damann said. “Our work indicates they have to physically touch the infecting toxin producer during its first 24 hours of growth to prevent toxin production by the toxigenic A. flavus.”
This mechanism can be called “competitive inclusion,” which refers to the requirement that both strains are growing together when they come into contact in the infected kernel, he said.
Damann is cooperating with plant pathologists Burt Bluhm of the University of Arkansas and Tom Allen of Mississippi State University to study these biocontrols. Their work is partially funded by a grant from the Aflatoxin Mitigation Center of Excellence administered by the National Corn Growers Association from funds contributed by state corn grower boards throughout the Southeast.
“Last year all three of us tested a spray formulation of Afla-Guard, Syngenta's biocontrol, applied a week before and at the same time as the toxigenic strain. Both treatments were highly effective in reducing aflatoxin contamination,” he said.
Afla-Guard contains a strain of A. flavus that does not produce aflatoxin. It is normally applied to denatured barley seed that acts as a carrier to introduce the material to a cornfield. Once the barley has been spread, the nontoxigenic fungus can be activated by moisture to produce spores that are carried throughout the field by wind and insects and infect the ear through the silks.
One problem with A. flavus biocontrol is that more than one strain can be toxigenic and cause an infection in a corn kernel. And because any one biocontrol strain doesn’t control all toxic strains, biocontrols aren’t 100 percent effective by themselves.
For the past several years, Damann put out trials at the LSU AgCenter Northeast Research Station in St. Joseph using Afla-Guard and three other A. flavus isolates called 17, 19 and 51 that were identified in his laboratory. Each biocontrol isolate in combination with Afla-Guard stopped aflatoxin from developing better than any of the isolates did when applied alone.
“This year we are applying the conventionally treated barley formulation of Afla-Guard and our 17, 19 and 51 strains alone and each of the three with Afla-Guard in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi,” Damann said. “It will be late August or early September before we will have results.”
It appears aflatoxin preventatives are sort of like a flu shot – the inoculum used has to be a strain that will counter the effects of the toxigenic strains of A. flavus present that season.
“In laboratory tests, we found that two biocontrols mixed together were better than any individually,” Damann said. “Each inhibits different parts of the toxigenic spectrum.”

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