Fusarium moniliforme, F. subglutinans and Aspergillus flavus in maize products in Slovakia.

Ubiquitous microfungi Fusarium moniliforme, F. subglutinans, F. proliferatum represent frequent contaminants of maize products and can produce some mycotoxins: beauvericin, fusaproliferin and, the most important, fumonisins A₁, A₂, B₁-B₄, C₁ etc. Fumonisins are known to cause serious veterinary, and potentially human, mycotoxicosis. The aim of our study was to characterize the incidence of F. moniliforme and F. subglutinans in the presence of Aspergillus flavus in maize products produced in Slovakia during a four-years period. One hundred and forty samples of maize grain, groat, semolina, flour, and 28 samples of maize straw, corn husk, corn silk and soil from the maize fields were mycologically evaluated for the named strains using potato-dextrose agar with 0.02 % chloramphenicol and 0.3 % of 0.2 % Botran and incubation in dark at 25⁰C for 7-10 days. No Fusarium sp. and A. flavus strains were present in 40 % of the maize samples. The highest number of F. monili for me, F. subglutinans and A. flavus isolates were encountered in flour samples in 1996 (4 264 cfu/g on average), in groat in 1998 (17 743.7 cfu/g on average), and in groat in 1996 (353 cfu/g on average). Twenty two per cent A. flavus isolates and 10 F. moniliforme strains were tested for their ability to produce aflatoxins, or fumonisin B₁, in vitro. No aflatoxin-producing A. flavus isolate was found, but all tested F. moniliforme strains produced fumonisin B₁ in amounts detectable by TLC. According to the results presented in this paper it is evident that strains of F. moniliforme, F. subglutinans and A. flavus were not very important contaminants of maize products from crops harvested in 1995-98 in Slovakia.