Aflatoxin Strikes Again

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ource=r_science By Lucas, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Dec. 4--Corn, a basic, trusted food ingredient for humans and animals, has a

chance of carrying a potent toxin if it was grown in southeast Iowa this year.

Extreme drought and warm nights in August fostered the production of

aflatoxin, which can interfere with the immune system or cause liver damage or

cancer.

Not since the drought of 1988 have Iowa farmers seen so much aflatoxin, which

is produced by the fungus Aspergillus flavus and invades stress-weakened corn in

the field.

Much like the bullet in Russian roulette, the toxin's presence is

unpredictable.

" Almost everyone has some aflatoxin in their corn this year, " says Misty

Brockway of Wapello, a crop insurance agent for Farm Bureau. " Farmers with eight

to 10 farms will have at least one farm with contaminated corn. "

Of her 167 clients, 120 filed claims for losses caused by aflatoxin.

The Food and Drug Administration limits the level of contamination at 20 parts

per billion for corn sold for commercial purposes. Higher levels of

contamination, as much as 300 parts per billion, are permitted for some

livestock feed, and that corn has been sold strictly as livestock feed for as

little as 75 cents a bushel. The price of corn has ranged from $1.60 to $1.90

this fall.

" It doesn't take much to be rejected. One kernel in 556 bushels will do it, "

Brockway says.

" The problem is the sample (from the field) can be clean but the truck (of

harvested corn) can be rejected. "

Some farmers have had a semi-trailer truck load rejected in the morning and

the same load accepted in the afternoon, at the same grain elevator, Brockway

says.

The amount of contaminated corn is unknown, because much of Fungus/Test

results vary per site it has been stored on farms and will be fed to livestock.

The contamination was not severe enough to affect Iowa's corn market in this

year of near-record production of 2.18 billion bushels of corn.

By mid-harvest, Quaker Foods in Cedar Rapids had rejected two loads of corn

found with aflatoxin, says Patti Jo Sinopoli, a spokeswoman for Quaker Foods, a

division of PepsiCo.

" That's not unusual this far into the harvest. This is minor, extremely

minor, " she says. " We are not alarmed. "

Quaker Foods tests for aflatoxin every year, not just when weather conditions

are favorable for aflatoxin production. The company applies stricter rules and

rejects loads of corn containing 15 parts per billion of aflatoxin, rather than

the industry-allowed 20 parts per billion.

" The safety of our food supply is critical, " Sinopoli says.

Industrial users of corn are not the dumping ground for contaminated corn.

Penford Products in Cedar Rapids, for example, also abides by the

20-parts-per-billion rejection rule. These processors do not want their

co-products to be contaminated.

" That would be the limiting factor for many processors that serve as

industrial accounts, " says Mark Heckman, grain merchandiser at Penford. " We're

in the industrial starch business but our co-products feed livestock. "

For farmers who have contaminated corn, dealing with the consequences can be a

headache.

Insurance agents ask farmers filing a loss claim to leave strips of

unharvested corn in the field so they can pick the corn and test it. After

testing, farmers have to go back with their combines and finish harvesting the

field.

Corn already harvested and in the bin is not covered by crop insurance.

Tom Furlong of Letts had crop insurance that covered a portion of his losses

to aflatoxin, but he had to buy uncontaminated corn to fill a contract for corn

he had sold in advance to Big River Energy, an ethanol plant in West Burlington.

He took three loads of his corn to the plant and two were rejected, although

those two passed a sampling test elsewhere. He bought two loads of corn to cover

his commitment, at a loss of $800, he says.

Furlong owns a few shares in the ethanol plant and says it operates with a

more stringent limit of 5 parts per billion because the ethanol production

process concentrates the toxin in its by-product, dried distillers grain, a

high-protein livestock feed. Corn with 5 parts per billion going into the plant

will produce dried distillers grain with a concentration of 15 parts per

billion.

" It's frustrating, " Furlong says. " It's hard to predict what corn it will be

in. I wonder if testing is consistent. "

Aflatoxin is fluorescent under a black light, the first step in testing a

sample of corn.

Further steps include grinding the corn in a blender and determining the

extent of the contamination.

Steve Sturtz, merchandising agent for Farmers Elevator and Exchange in

Wapello, says elevator workers take a sample from every truckload and scan it

using a black light, but many toxins shine under a black light. They began the

season using a bc simple ec test strip and then added a machine to better test

the corn.

" We didn't have 10 loads over 100 parts per billion. Everything else (that was

contaminated) was between 20 to 60 parts per billion, " he says.

Farmers Elevator set aside a small bin for contaminated corn and is finding

livestock feeders who will buy it for $1.60 a bushel, about 15 cents off the

price of uncontaminated corn. During harvest, Grain Broker Jerry Keleher at

Consumers ative in Coralville was connecting farmers who had aflatoxin

contaminated corn with cattle feeders.

Along with testing every load to prevent contamination of corn in the co-op's

bins, grain handlers there also tested samples of corn brought in by farmers.

" This is another obstacle for farmers, with the significant rise in fuel

costs, especially diesel, " Keleher says. " Corn and soybean prices are depressed.

There are a lot of challenges in front of farmers. "

WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH REJECTED CORN?

Corn with more than 20 parts per billion aflatoxin will be rejected for

commercial trade.

HERE ARE OPTIONS FOR REJECTED CORN:

--Fed to breeding meat animals if the corn has less than 100 ppb aflatoxin.

--Fed to finishing swine if the corn has less than 200 ppb aflatoxin.

--Fed to finishing cattle if the corn has less than 300 ppb aflatoxin.

--Run through a good grain cleaner. Kernels infected with Aspergillus flavus,

the mold that produces aflatoxin, tend to be lighter and may be smaller or

misshapen, so a good cleaning may lower the level of aflatoxin to acceptable

levels for feeding.

--Professional treatment with anhydrous ammonia or aqua- ammonia will render

the aflatoxin harmless. The grain will not be acceptable in general trade but

will be safe to feed. However, swine may reject it.

--Blend it with less contaminated grain to make the entire lot acceptable for

feeding. It cannot legally be blended with better quality corn to make it

acceptable for interstate commerce.

Source: Iowa State University Extension

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Source: The Gazette - Cedar Rapids, Iowa