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Delaying harvest for naturally drying maize grain increases the risk of kernel rot and fumonisin contamination

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Abstract

Artificial drying, although costly, ensures a safe storage and preserves post-harvest grain quality. Alternatively, a more cost-effective measure is to delay harvest to promote natural drying, but this management may increase the risk of mycotoxigenic ear rot fungi contamination. The objective was to evaluate the effect of increasing maize harvest delay on fungal disease and fumonisin levels. Three maize hybrids (BRS1035, Attack and DKB390 YG) were sown in the field to study the effect of five harvest delays (15, 30, 45, 60 and 75 days) after the optimum date (18% grain moisture). There was a significant trend of increasing the incidence of kernel rot and total fumonisins in the grains when delaying harvest, but fungal incidence and mycotoxin contamination varied with the hybrid. The main fungi detected in the grain samples were Fusarium verticillioides and Stenocarpella maydis. The hybrid DKB390 YG showed significantly lower incidence of F. verticillioides contamination and lower fumonisin accumulation in the grains than the other hybrids. The hybrid Attack was the least susceptible to kernel rot incidence. Our data shows that delaying harvest for minimizing drying costs may increase the risk of mycotoxin contamination in maize in the tropics of Brazil.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Embrapa Maize and Sorghum and National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Embrapa Milho e Sorgo, Sete Lagoas, MG, 35701-970, Brazil

    Rodrigo Véras da Costa, Valéria A. V. Queiroz, Luciano V. Cota & Dagma D. da Silva

  2. Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Viçosa, MG, 36570-000, Brazil

    Fabrício E. Lanza

  3. Embrapa Pesca e Aquicultura, Palmas, TO, 77008-900, Brazil

    Rodrigo E. M. de Almeida, Alan A. Pereira & Rosiana Rodrigues Alves

  4. Embrapa Soja, Londrina, PR, 86001-970, Brazil

    Leonardo J. M. Campos

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  1. Rodrigo Véras da Costa
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  2. Valéria A. V. Queiroz
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  3. Luciano V. Cota
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  4. Dagma D. da Silva
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  5. Fabrício E. Lanza
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Correspondence to Rodrigo Véras da Costa.

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Section Editor: Raul Allende-Mollar

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da Costa, R.V., Queiroz, V.A.V., Cota, L.V. et al. Delaying harvest for naturally drying maize grain increases the risk of kernel rot and fumonisin contamination. Trop. plant pathol. 43, 452–459 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40858-018-0234-0

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