Journal of Food Processing & Technology

Fusarium species in the grains of spelt (Triticum spelta L.) from fields in Hungary

3^rd International Conference on Agricultural Engineering and Food Security

November 12-13, 2018 | Berlin, Germany

Barbara Geiger, Katalin Korosi and Jozsef Kiss

Szent Istvan University, Hungary

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Food Process Technol

Abstract:

Spelt (Triticum spelta L.) is well known traditional cereal used in human diet and animal feed as well. The cultivation of spelt is popular among farmers especially in ecological farming. However, limited scientific information is available on pests (invertebrates, fungi and weeds) from spelt that pose risk for the proper cultivation practice, food and feed safety and quality. Therefore, a program started with development of pest management of spelt with surveying the occurrence of pest species, their densities and damage in selected spelt fields in Hungary. Our initial results on Heteropteran (sucking) pests have already been published. The Fusarium species are widespread fungal pathogens on small-grains including spelt in Europe. Fusarium species are known to produce mycotoxins. Cereal products are one of the main sources of mycotoxins in both human and animal diets. Therefore detection, identification and control of Fusarium species which can infect spelt is important. According to surveys, fusarium head blight (FHB) on wheat are predominantly caused by F. graminearum and F. culmorum. In our studies we sampled spelt grains from fields and isolated Fusarium species from kernels. The laboratory study showed that the highest percentage of spelt kernels were infected by Fusarium poae. Identification of Fusarium species starts with rearing the pathogens on artificial media. However, rearing on modified Nash and Snyder medium is difficult due to the rapid growth of Alternaria and other fungi contamination. The PCR based identification confirmed in most cases the traditional morphology based results.

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