The influence of harvesting time and meteorological conditions on the occurrence of Fusarium species and mycotoxin contamination of spring cereals.

It was found that in all experimental years, F. poae, F. tricinctum and F. sporotrichioides predominated in oat grains and F. graminearum, F. sporotrichioides and F. avenaceum predominated in spring triticale; as a result, oat grains were more contaminated with T-2 and triticale grains with DON and ZEA. Due to the rainy harvesting period in 2017, the contamination level of Fusarium fungi of grain of both crop species was 100%, and the concentrations of DON and ZEA in the samples of spring triticale were several times higher than those set forth in the EU regulation. Co-occurrence of all three mycotoxins analysed (DON, ZEA and T-2) was identified in these samples. © 2020 Society of Chemical Industry.