A three-year study by federal researchers found the cattle rumen is not
a friendly place for fusarium, a fungal disease of cereal crops that
has become a menace to agriculture.
The study, started in 1999, found no evidence that the disease remains
viable after passing through the digestive system of cattle in
feedlots, said Kelly Turkington, plant pathologist at Agriculture
Canada’s Lacombe Research Centre.
“If it’s put through the animal, it looks like that will take care of a
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large part of the risk.”
The finding was based on samples of manure collected from several
feedlots in Manitoba and Alberta.
The research may be important as Alberta, an importer of feed grains,
weighs what new measures it should take to keep out grains that may be
infected with fusarium.
Turkington could not say why fusarium loses viability in the cattle
rumen. Microbes in the rumen, or even the temperature, could be some of
the factors at play.
The research also checked samples of grain in feedbunks and from grain
spills at Alberta and Manitoba feedlots.
While the disease was common in grain samples taken from Manitoba
feedlots, it was not found in the Alberta samples. Samples taken in
2001 are still being tested.
Fusarium graminearum has been declared a pest in Alberta and is the
species that has proved most devastating for cereal crop production in
Manitoba.
Even at low levels, infected grain can produce spores that could spread
the disease to agricultural land.
However, Turkington views grain spilled from feedbunks as a smaller
concern than grain spilled at railroad sidings and along highways.
At the feedlot, the grain can be shoveled back into the bunk. Or, if
the cattle don’t want it, it can be composted with manure. Composted
manure also appears to destroy fusarium.
Meanwhile, grain spilled on the side of a highway could be a source of
infection for at least two years, Turkington said.
“My biggest concern, from a pathology point of view, would be that
grain.”
Jeff Warrack, who operates a large feedlot and grain farm with his
family near Strathmore, Alta., hopes science, rather than emotion, will
be the basis for deciding whether added restrictions are warranted for
feed grains entering his province.
From the perspective of a crop producer, he does not want fusarium to
become entrenched in Alberta.
However, as a feedlot operator he does not want the province to bring
in restrictions that would choke off his supply of feed grains.
“It’s a real concern to the livestock industry here if all of the
sudden those feeds aren’t going to be available to us.”
A crop production pathologist at Agriculture Canada’s Brandon Research
Centre hopes funding will soon be approved for a more controlled study
on fusarium-infected grain fed to cattle.
Debbie McLaren said the study would allow more precise controls of the
levels of fusarium infection in the grains being fed.
McLaren would also like to know what aspects of the cattle’s digestive
system impair the fungus.
Meanwhile, emergency registration has been granted to allow farmers to
use Folicur, a fungicide that suppresses fusarium head blight.
It’s the fourth year Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency
has granted emergency use registration for Folicur in Manitoba,
Saskatchewan, Quebec and Ontario to help farmers fight fusarium in
spring wheat, winter wheat and durum.
