With the transition from a La Nina to an El Nino weather pattern, the corn belt in 2023 will experience higher rainfall and prolonged periods of hot weather.  This combination increases yield but creates conditions conducive to proliferation of mycotoxins including aflatoxin, DON and trichothecenes.

Aflatoxin will be problematic if high temperatures are encountered during the silking stage of the 2023 corn crop.  Desiccation will allow penetration of the developing kernels with Aspergillus  resulting in elaboration of aflatoxin.

At the recent PEAK Convention trade show, Walters™/VICAM demonstrated the Afla-V™ One aflatoxin test kit suitable for use in a feed mill.  Rapid assays can be conducted in feed mills with minimal training and investment in equipment. The procedure involves extraction of aflatoxin in a methanol-water mixture that is transferred to a test strip applying lateral flow immuno-detection.  The result is read using a Vertu-TOUCH reader.  The Afla-V™ One assay system has a detection range of 0-300 ppb with excellent linearity and reproducibility.  Under controlled conditions, commercial feed spiked with 5 ppb aflatoxin resulted in a 92 percent recovery with a CV among three replicates of 21 percent.  At a 150 ppb level of spiking, recovery was 88.1 percent with a 6.4 percent coefficient of variation.  Results compare favorably with more advanced and expensive high performance liquid chromatography assays.

For further information access the company website www.vicam@vicam.com