Mycotoxin Occurrence in Oak Acorn Species Native to Tennessee

Abstract

Agricultural plants and domestic animals are subject to mycotoxin contamination or infection, respectively, during unusually wet or dry growing seasons. This study was designed to assay mycotoxin levels in a major wildlife food source. Acorn and corn samples were collected at the Ames Plantation in Grand Junction, Tennessee, from both bottomland and upland regions. Samples were gathered during Fall 1998 after adroughty summer. Forty-eight acorn samples were tested, using thin-layer chromatography, for six different toxins at the Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at Purdue University. This determined the concentrations and types of mycotoxins present in each sample. Two of the six toxins showed up regularly and at fairly high concentrations throughout the samples. Acorn samples closer to cornfields yielded higher frequencies of one of the toxins. Wildlife that eat these acorns are receiving levels of mycotoxins at least twice that of the recommended levels for any domestic animal. Further research needs to be conducted during a year when there is little or no environmental stress to see if the 1998 acorn samples showed unusually high levels of toxins. These toxins can pose a threat to wildlife, and more research should be carried out to test the extent to which wildlife are exposed to and damaged by these toxins.