Climate Change and Mycotoxins: Adjusting to New Extremes

Issue 11

A Romer Labs® Publication

Photos: Firdaus Exia, Howard Ande

Climate Change and Mycotoxins: Adjusting to New Extremes

Drought and Increased Aflatoxin Levels in Peanuts Flooding and Fumonisins Integrated Mycotoxin Management with MyToolBox

Photo: Akira Kaede

Photo: smereka

Contents

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Adjusting Rapid Mycotoxin Detection Strategies to a Changing Climate As the climate changes, so do the ways we approach on-site mycotoxin detection. Julie Sundgaard and Kristen Mintle of Romer Labs North America discuss how extreme weather phenomena such as the 2017 landfall of Hurricane Harvey in Texas are forcing stakeholders to respond to new threats.

By Julie Sundgaard, Managing Director, Romer Labs North America Kristen Mintle, Sales Manager North Central Area, Romer Labs US

Spot On is a publication of Romer Labs Division Holding GmbH, distributed free-of-charge.

ISSN: 2414-2042

Contributors: Kurt Brunner, Rudolf Krska, Kristen Mintle, Birgit Poschmaier, Julia Sundgaard Graphic: GraphX ERBER AG Research: Kurt Brunner

Publisher: Romer Labs Division Holding GmbH Erber Campus 1 3131 Getzersdorf, Austria Tel: +43 2782 803 0 www.romerlabs.com

©Copyright 2023, Romer Labs® All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form for commercial purposes without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Photo: smereka

Editors: Joshua Davis, Cristian Ilea

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MyToolBox – Smart, Integrated Mycotoxin Management What if there were a tool to help silo managers predict the occurrence of mycotoxins in their storage facilities, analyze relevant weather data, repurpose contaminated crops, and better understand regulations? As it turns out, there is such a tool currently under development: the MyToolBox project. Guest authors Birgit Poschmaier of Queens University Belfast and Rudolf Krska of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna explain.

By Birgit Poschmaier, Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queens University Belfast and Rudolf Krska, Institute of Bioanalytics and Agrometabolomics, Department of Agrobiotechnology, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna

All photos herein are the property of Romer Labs or used with license.

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Spot On Issue 11

Editorial Adjusting to extreme weather through scientific innovation March of 2019 witnessed one of the most serious natural catastrophes to strike the farming communities of the Midwestern United States: floodwaters breached the banks of Missouri River and its tributaries, affecting millions of residents in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas and, according to some reports, put millions of acres of farmland under water.

Doubtless, this is a tragedy. Yet it is our responsibility as scientists who serve the agricultural sector to help farmers, grain traders and silo operators respond to the difficulties of such situations in the short term. Over the long term, all of us need to adjust to the reality of the increasing frequency of extreme weather phenomena. Prolonged dry periods, tropical storms of unusual strength, and frequent flooding are just a few examples of conditions that harm crops all around the world.

Each mycotoxin-producing mold, as the research tells us, favors different weather conditions, with some able to thrive in such extreme conditions; this only underscores the need for mycotoxin testing in reaction to unusual or unseasonal weather phenomena. Testing for mycotoxins helps stakeholders quickly define whether mycotoxin-producing molds are growing in a crop, empowering them to take immediate measures, such as segregating damaged kernels or adding supplements to deactivate mycotoxins. Mycotoxin measurement and management play a key role in managing the entire lifecycle of a crop.

In this issue of Spot On, my colleagues Julie Sundgaard and Kristen Mintle discuss extreme weather conditions and their effects on mycotoxin testing programs. Drawing on concrete examples from the grain and feed industry and the peanut industry in the United States, they highlight the ever more frequent necessity of adjusting rapid test methods such as strip tests to meet the challenges brought by unusual weather fluctuations.

Guest authors Rudolf Krska and Birgit Poschmaier will introduce MyToolBox, a software solution for the management of mycotoxins during the whole lifecycle of a crop. Among several interactive features, MyToolBox provides prediction tools that help grain traders prevent mycotoxin contamination by identifying problem spots and recommending how contaminated crops can be salvaged, as in biofuel production.

I hope that you enjoy this issue of Spot On.

Kurt Brunner Division Research Officer, Romer Labs®

A R moam g ae zr i n L ea bosf® RPoumbel irc a L taibosn®

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Spot On Issue 11

Adjusting Rapid Mycotoxin Detection Strategies to a Changing Climate As the climate changes, so do the ways we approach on-site mycotoxin detection.

Julie Sundgaard and Kristen Mintle of Romer Labs North America discuss how extreme weather phenomena such as the 2017 landfall of Hurricane Harvey in Texas are forcing stakeholders to respond to new threats.

By Julie Sundgaard, Managing Director, Romer Labs North America Kristen Mintle, Sales Manager North Central Area, Romer Labs US

A Romer Labs® Publication

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The capabilities of testing techniques must also be commensurate to the new and unusual challenges that accompany extreme weather.

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he impacts of climate change are making themselves known in many ways: destructive storms such as hurricanes, flooding, extreme heat and drought all affect agricultural products and the animals and people who rely on them. As the FDA notes in a summary of the effects of hurricanes and flooding on the safety of animal food crops, extreme weather phenomena such as flooding damage grains and other agricultural products, giving mycotoxin-producing molds such as Aspergillus and Fusarium strains an opportunity to infect them1. Indeed, the 2017 BIOMIN Mycotoxin Survey indicated a worldwide increase in levels of fumonisin, a mycotoxin produced by Fusarium2; many speculate that warmer, wetter weather is leading to this increase3.

This makes on-site mycotoxin analysis an important tool that provides producers with rapid results that give them a chance to respond to volatile weather conditions. In this article, we demonstrate this with two examples from the United States: a case study on a tactical response to increased fumonisin levels in corn in the southern Great Plains as a result of hurricane-induced flooding in 2017, and a review of common practice from peanut producers confronted with higher aflatoxin levels caused by drought in the southeastern United States.

Case study: adjusting detection ranges in strip tests to deal with extreme levels of fumonisin Farmers in several food-producing regions in the world are confronted with flooding more frequently than in the past. In March of 2019, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas experienced historic flooding as a result of ice jams, the melting of a record snowfall and excessive rains. This led to the failure of at least 30 levees, the flooding from which affected approximately 90,000 grain bins and more than 16 million acres of corn, soybean and wheat. The total economic damage exceeded $7 billion.4 These floods represent the continuation of a trend.

Instances of flooding and accompanying agricultural damage continue to dominate headlines in the United States.

After Hurricane Harvey made its initial landfall on August 25, 2017 as a Category 4 storm, it continued to move further inland, dumping heavy amounts of rain in its path. During this time, annual harvest was fast approaching; no one could have predicted the catastrophic agricultural events that would soon follow, specifically in the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, Southwestern Kansas and areas of Southeastern Colorado.

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In September 2017, as the harvest season began, corn samples were collected and sent to third-party laboratories for analysis. Signs of high fumonisin levels were prevalent in the Texas Panhandle due to the excessive rains from Hurricane Harvey, which occurred just prior to the harvest season. The rains provided Fusarium molds, which produce fumonisin, with ideal growing conditions. Although not widespread and showing variation from county to county, corn samples were seen at unprecedented fumonisin levels, such as 30 ppm, 50 ppm, 70 ppm and even 100 ppm.

Depending on the intended product usage, acceptable fumonisin levels can widely range in the United States from 2 ppm to 4 ppm for human consumption, and in animal feeds (corn and corn by-products) from 5 ppm to 100 ppm. However, in Europe, the levels can be even stricter, ranging from 0.2 ppm to 4 ppm for human consumption and 5 to 60 ppm in animal feed.5 As the fumonisin concern escalated, mycotoxin testing continued to be a primary discussion amongst those in the industry, and in the Texas Panhandle in particular, where fumonisin concentrations usually average around 4 ppm. Amid growing concern, and after much deliberation over a standardized number, cattle feeders designated 60 ppm as a safe level for their livestock.

From the beginning of this crisis, Romer Labs was involved. Romer Labs representatives received several requests regarding the ability to test on-site for high fumonisin levels in incoming corn shipments. At the time, the AgraStrip® WATEX® Fumonisin test kit offered ranges between 0-5 ppm and, with a dilution step, 5-30 ppm. Cattle feeders indicated an immediate need to test at much higher fumonisin levels than the kit initially could run due to the increased fumonisin occurrence in corn grain.

Romer Labs responded by successfully developing a third curve using yet another additional dilution step, giving the AgraStrip® WATEX® Fumonisin kit an additional range of 30-100 ppm.

The process to complete the third curve was finalized within a matter of days and ready to be deployed in the field. Due to the high levels seen at the beginning of the harvest season, cattle feeders chose to start testing only at the 30-100 ppm level. This continued into 2018.

On its face, this example shows an increased need for mycotoxin testing in the wake of an extreme weather event, such as flooding caused by a hurricane or tropical storm. Yet the capabilities of testing techniques must also be commensurate to the new and unusual challenges that accompany extreme weather. In this case, the quantitation range needed to be expanded to Spot On Issue 11

meet exploding fumonisin concentrations. Flexibility on the part of test kit providers and those who apply them in the field will grow more necessary.

Using test kits to monitor extreme levels of total aflatoxin in peanuts Flooding is, of course, not the only extreme weather phenomenon that can lead to higher levels of mycotoxins. Few know this better than peanut farmers in the southeastern US, where drought and heat can put crops under considerable stress, rendering them vulnerable to aflatoxin-producing strains of Aspergillus.

Aspergillus parasiticus and Aspergillus flavus are chiefly responsible for aflatoxin occurrence in peanuts.

These molds occur naturally in soil, making it difficult to prevent their coming into contact with the legumes, which grow underground. When average temperatures remain at or above 32°C (90°F), and when these hot conditions converge with drought, the peanuts become even more susceptible to aflatoxin occurrence. These represent pre-harvest stressors, over which farmers have very little control.

Weather conditions around harvest time can exacerbate the stress the peanuts experience and lead to shell damage, giving Aspergillus more opportunity to invade.

If intense periods of rain or flooding occur just before or during harvest, the peanuts may not have enough time to dry sufficiently before being put into storage. As is the case with several molds, humidity in excess of 14% can favor the growth of mycotoxin-producing molds in storage facilities.

So what to do if you suspect or discover that drought and heat have resulted in high levels of aflatoxin in a crop? Usually, it is the responsibility of the buying points or the shellers to take action. First, operators of peanut buying points grade the peanuts according to several characteristics defined by the USDA-FSIS: quality of shell, visual presence of mold, loose shell kernels, etc. Peanut quantities evaluated as “Seg 1”, that is, with the best FSIS rating, are then tested with strip tests, which serve further to segregate the peanuts.

Buying points then decide how to store them according to aflatoxin concentration.

By isolating the highly contaminated peanuts, buying points preserve the integrity of uncontaminated or less contaminated peanuts so that these remain suitable for direct human consumption. The highly contaminated peanuts are often destined for products whose production eliminates or reduces aflatoxin content. For example, aflatoxins tend to transfer from the intact legume to oil at low rates. Refining and other treatment further reduce aflatoxin levels.

A Romer Labs® Publication

From the storage warehouse, peanuts are then transported to shelling plants, where strip tests provide information about aflatoxin concentration, guiding decisions about further usage, such as the type of food into which they can be integrated. Peanut shells intended for animal feed are tested once again for aflatoxins before making their way to feed mills.

Conclusion: Changing climate, changing test methods Though many of these methods are common practice for producers of peanuts, extreme drought and heat combined with untimely occurrences of heavy rain have caused higher than average aflatoxin levels in peanuts.

As the climate changes and the earth warms, extreme weather will continue to complicate efforts to keep mycotoxins and the molds that produce them at bay. Drastic events such as hurricanes are unpredictable, requiring quick adaptability on the part of farmer and grain traders to adjust to heightened levels of fumonisins and other mycotoxins that thrive in wet, hot conditions.

Such new environmental conditions may necessitate creative approaches that go beyond simply adjusting the parameters of existing test kits to maintain food and feed safety. Just what such solutions entail is the focus of much research and speculation going forward.

As the climate changes and the earth warms, extreme weather will continue to complicate efforts to keep mycotoxins and the molds that produce them at bay.

References FDA (2019, November 9). Safety of Food and Animal Food Crops Affected by Hurricanes, Flooding, and Power Outages. Retrieved from https://www.fda. gov/food/food-safety-during-emergencies/safetyfood-and-animal-food-crops-affected-hurricanesflooding-­and-power-outages#general.

2 BIOMIN (2018, August 29). 2017 BIOMIN Mycotoxin Survey Results. Retrieved from https://www.biomin.net/ science-hub/2017-biomin-mycotoxin-survey-results/.

3 BIOMIN and Romer Labs (2018, February 19). Mycotoxin Outlook 2018: The Rise of Fumonisins. Retrieved from https://www.romerlabs.com/en/knowledge-center/ knowledge-library/videos/news/webinar-mycotoxin-outlook-2018-the-rise-of-fumonisins/.

4 AgFax (2019, April 25). Midwest Flooding: 150K Growers, 16Mln Acres. Retrieved from https://agfax. com/2019/04/25/midwest-flooding-150k-growers16mln-acres/.

5 FDA (2001, November). Guidance for Industry: Fumonisin Levels in Human Foods and Animal Feeds. Retrieved from https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/guidance-industry-fumonisin-levels-human-foods-and-animal-feeds.

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MyToolBox –

Smart, Integrated Mycotoxin What if there were a tool to help silo managers predict the occurrence of mycotoxins

in their storage facilities, analyze relevant weather data, repurpose contaminated crops,

and better understand regulations? As it turns out, there is such a tool currently under development: the MyToolBox project. Guest authors Birgit Poschmaier and Rudolf Krska explain.

By Birgit Poschmaier, Institute for Global Food Security, School of Biological Sciences, Queens University Belfast and

Rudolf Krska, Institute of Bioanalytics and Agrometabolomics, Department of Agrobiotechnology, University of Natural

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Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna

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MyToolBox in Brief Project duration: March 2016 – February 2020 Coordinator: Prof. Rudolf Krska, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU) Number of partners: 23: 40% industry and SMEs, from 11 countries, including 3 partners from China Budget: 5 million EUR (European partners) + 1 Mio CNY (Chinese partners) Website: https://mytoolbox.eu Twitter: @MyToolBoxEU

and expertise is a key step for stakeholders along the food and feed chain to sustainably tackle the mycotoxin problem. This is the very essence of a large-scale project now funded by the European Commission: the MyToolBox project (www.mytoolbox.eu) (Grant Agreement No. 678012).

Photo: smereka

Integrating users’ needs into an online decision support platform

Management

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he European Union has estimated that 5-10% of worldwide crop production is lost because of mycotoxin contamination.1 These losses transform into high financial burdens not only because of yield and total crop losses, but also because of inspection and analytical costs. Extreme weather events further complicate the global mycotoxin landscape, requiring forecasting and detection methods to adapt to this new and changing reality. While innovative solutions are essential to meet these new challenges, integrating existing know-how A Romer Labs® Publication

Decades of research has shown tremendous progress in detecting mycotoxins all along the production chain, from raw materials to the food we consume. Naturally, methods to reduce the risk of mycotoxin contamination have been developed and put into practice. These range from crop management to sampling, storage and processing. Eventually, regulations have come to reflect much of this knowledge, albeit in a language and format difficult to understand and navigate in.

MyToolBox transforms this knowledge into easily understandable text that reflects state-of-the-art data gathering techniques: Instead of navigating through lists of mycotoxins and how to manage them in various crops, MyToolBox users can select the crop first and then explore how to limit mycotoxin contamination at different stages of production. For example, the EU‘s maximum limits of deoxynivalenol (DON) in wheat flour used for further processing is different from the maximum limit of DON in raw wheat used for further processing. Additionally, the permissible DON concentration in wheat intended for human consumption is lower than that of wheat intended for animal feed. The MyToolBox e-platform reverses this focus by putting the crop first, allowing the user to follow each processing step and the associated maximum mycotoxin contaminations allowed – aided by novel insights resulting from dedicated experiments.

Besides transforming existing information into easily understandable formats, MyToolBox strives to support

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MyToolBox has developed real-time decision-supporting tools for farmers and silo managers, allowing them to react quickly to potential mycotoxin

end-users in their decision-making. It has thus developed real-time decision-supporting tools for farmers and silo managers, allowing them to react quickly to potential mycotoxin threats.

User-friendly mycotoxin management for farmers In Europe, the most prevalent mycotoxins for wheat are DON and zearalenone (ZEN), which are generally produced by Fusarium spp. fungi. For maize, the most frequent mycotoxins are fumonisins (FUM) and aflatoxins (AF), generally produced by the Fusarium

and Aspergillus fungi, respectively. Regardless of the availability of vulnerable hosts or crops, fungi development and toxin production largely depend on weather parameters such as temperature and humidity. For example, it is well known that warm temperatures and rain during the flowering of maize increases the risk of aflatoxin contamination in the crop. MyToolBox provides a set of recommendations for farmers raising wheat, maize, barley and oats, ranging from crop debris management and crop rotation to the use of biopesticides and resistant cultivars and real-time support during the growing season.

Illustration: IRIS, MyToolBox

threats.

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The real-time support tool builds on forecasting models connected to weather stations throughout Europe. In MyToolBox, a farmer, for example, can identify a field, select the closest weather station, and put in basic crop data such as a date to sow. Upon providing minimal updates, such as the use of pesticides or weeding, the farmer will then receive a risk map of the field, indicating a low (green), medium (amber) or high (red) risk of mycotoxin contamination in the crop. Counter-measures to reduce this risk, or options on how to handle contaminated material, can then be found in MyToolBox; the tool provides both warnings as well as recommendations.

As part of the project, MyToolBox tested the effectiveness of novel biopesticides that mitigate DON contamination in wheat (UK) and oats (Norway) and of atoxigenic Aspergillus strains that curtail aflatoxins in maize in Serbia. This last method proved particularly successful in initial trials. Similar results were found for the use of locally derived atoxigenic Aspergillus strains in some states in Africa. While economic efficiency is subject to further improvements, the effectiveness of using atoxigenic strains proved to be a valuable method to tackle aflatoxin contamination in maize in Europe.

Making use of highly contaminated crops If contamination levels exceed all maximum levels, even the one for feed, alternative use options were tested to repurpose what would otherwise be unusable crops. Pilot scale experiments showed that recombinant enzymes could simultaneously degrade up to 100% and 90% of FB1 and ZEN, respectively. Biotransformation was confirmed by formation of the non-toxic degradation products hydrolyzed FB1 and hydrolyzed ZEN. On the other hand, biogas production proved to be a sensible way to use highly contaminated wheat and maize: although methane production was slightly delayed, no significant differences in methane yield could be found between highly and minimally contaminated substrate; the mycotoxin contamination of digestate was below the LOD. These results have been integrated into the MyToolBox e-platform to inform plant managers, feed production managers and bioethanol/biogas plant managers alike.

Alarm system for silo monitoring Aside from farmers, silo managers also have to guard the safety of their crops, as storage fungi can spread quickly and contaminate the stored grain with A Romer Labs® Publication

mycotoxins. Current practice in silo management is to measure temperature and relative humidity, either periodically or remotely. As part of the MyToolBox project, sensors have been developed that use CO2 as an early-warning parameter. By including CO2 in the prediction model, potential contamination can be predicted three to five days earlier than by using only temperature-sensitive sensors; this allows for a quicker reaction to the threat of contamination. The MyToolBox sensors will alert the user about the potential increase of ZEN (for stored wheat) and aflatoxin (for stored maize) closest to the sensor nodes in the silo, allowing the user to pinpoint the contamination threat to a specific location in the silo.

Making the user count Beyond the real-time forecasting of mycotoxins in fields and silos, a group of potential end-users in the Netherlands, Serbia, Italy, UK, Turkey and Norway were asked for their feedback on an integrated mycotoxin management platform. To achieve maximum response, a strong dissemination plan was followed that included the sharing of results in scientific communities and programs to reach out to industries and end-users through targeted stakeholder workshops. We also made use of presentations at fairs and conferences and connections with other networks and projects (such as MycoKey and ISM) in Europe and China. This helped us not only to produce a user-friendly platform filled with actionable information for stakeholders, but also to aid in risk assessment.

Unlike previous projects and standards, the MyToolBox project leverages a fully integrated multi-actor approach with a high degree of involvement from the end-user to address problems stemming from mycotoxins along the food and feed chain. Reduced mycotoxin risks in crops will result in reduced losses along the food chain. By providing traceable information along the supply chain using mainstream ICT technology, MyToolBox stands to make a substantial contribution to the health, safety and well-being of consumers.

MyToolBox provides a set of recommendations for farmers, ranging from crop debris management and crop rotation to the use of biopesticides and real-time support during the growing season.

References 1

European Commission (2013, December 11).

Biological contamination of crops and the food

chain. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/info/ funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/ opportunities/topic-details/sfs-13-2015.

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