How do Time, Tannin and Moisture Content Influence on Toxicogenic Fungal Populations during the Storage of Sorghum Grains?

What is it about?

Sorghum grains are an important nutrution source for dairy cattle in Uruguay and other countries. Then silage conditions must be evaluated to avoide fungal and mycotoxins contamination. The impact of high and low grains tannin content as moisture content and storage time on Penicillium, Aspergillus and Fusarium populations were analized as aflatoxins and fumonisins. Aflatoxins were detected in a few samples and at low levels in pre- and poststorage grains. Fumonisins were only detected in freshly harvested samples. In general, medium moisture content was the most suitable condition to constrain Penicillium and Aspergillus populations. The results of this study show that fungal population vary along the storage period so periodic monitoring of sorghum silage must be performed at different times.

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