A Preliminary Survey of Mycotoxins Identified from Florida Bahiagrass Pastures

Hui-Ling (Sunny) Liao, Ko-Hsuan Chen, Florencia Marcon, Robert (Robbie) Jones, Brittany Justesen, Joseph Walter, Ann Blount, Cheryl Mackowiak, Doug Mayo, and Marcelo Wallau

Release Date: 8/14/2023

Reviewed At: 7/5/2023

DOI: 10.32473/edis-ss718-2023

Natural Resources

Abstract

The beef cattle ranchers in Florida reported some health issues related to cattle grazing on warm-season grass pastures, such as bahiagrass and bermudagrass. The illness was not attributable to nutritional imbalances, or other possible causes. The focus then turned to what the animals were consuming, and forages were implicated. In general, the forages in Florida are just fine, however, sometimes under certain circumstances the fungi that live in our forages may produce “secondary metabolites”. All the forage harbor fungi. Some fungi are good in that they aid our forages to grow better, helping to mine nutrients from the soil or atmosphere. Sometimes they are not so good, like when high levels of ergotized seed occur in the seed heads of bahiagrass.

About this Publication

This document is SL505, one of a series of the Department of Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date August 2023. Visit the EDIS website at https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu for the currently supported version of this publication.

About the Authors

Hui-Ling (Sunny) Liao, state specialist of microbiology, Department of Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences, North Florida REC; Ko-Hsuan Chen, assistant research fellow, Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan; Florencia Marcon, postdoctoral associate, Department of Agronomy, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Corrientes, Argentina; Robert (Robbie) Jones, director and agent III, Extension Gadsden County; Brittany Justesen, livestock and forages agent I, Extension Osceola County; Joseph Walter, livestock/crop agent III, Extension Brevard County; Ann Blount, emeritus state specialist of forage bleeding, Agronomy Department; Cheryl Mackowiak, state specialist of soil chemistry, Department of Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences, North Florida REC; Doug Mayo, director and livestock & forages agent IV, Extension Jackson County; and Marcelo Wallau, forage Extension specialist, Agronomy Department; UF/IFAS Extension, Gainesville, FL 32611.

How to Cite

Liao, H.-L., Chen, K.-H., Marcon, F., Jones, R., Justesen, B., Walter, J., Blount, A., Mackowiak, C., Mayo, D., & Wallau, M. (2023). Preliminary Survey of Mycotoxins Identified from Florida Bahiagrass Pastures. EDIS, 2023(4). https://doi.org/10.32473/edis-ss718-2023

Authors

Joseph Walter

emeritus program county Extension agent III, M.S., livestock/crops, UF/IFAS Extension Brevard County

Hui-Ling (Sunny) Liao

Contact

Specialist

University of Florida

associate professor, soil microbial ecology, Department of Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences, UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center, Quincy, FL

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Ko-Hsuan Chen

postdoctoral associate, UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center, Quincy, FL

assistant research fellow, Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Florencia Marcón

postdoctoral associate, Department of Agronomy, Universidad Nacional del Nordeste, Corrientes, Argentina;

Robert (Robbie) Jones

County agent

University of Florida

Extension agent III, M.A., agriculture and natural resources, UF/IFAS Extension Gadsden County, Quincy, FL

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Ann Blount

Specialist

University of Florida

professor emeritus and courtesy forage breeding & management Extension specialist, Department of Agronomy, UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center

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