title: Impacts of Cereal Ergot in Food Animal Production.
abstract: The negative impacts of ergot contamination of grain on the health of humans and animals were first documented during the fifth century AD. Although ergotism is now rare in humans, cleaning contaminated grain concentrates ergot bodies in screenings which are used as livestock feed. Ergot is found worldwide, with even low concentrations of alkaloids in the diet (<100 ppb total), reducing the growth efficiency of livestock. Extended periods of increased moisture and cold during flowering promote the development of ergot in cereal crops. Furthermore, the unpredictability of climate change may have detrimental impacts to important cereal crops, such as wheat, barley, and rye, favoring ergot production. Allowable limits for ergot in livestock feed are confusing as they may be determined by proportions of ergot bodies or by total levels of alkaloids, measurements that may differ widely in their estimation of toxicity. The proportion of individual alkaloids, including ergotamine, ergocristine, ergosine, ergocornine, and ergocryptine is extremely variable within ergot bodies and the relative toxicity of these alkaloids has yet to be determined. This raises concerns that current recommendations on safe levels of ergot in feeds may be unreliable. Furthermore, the total ergot alkaloid content is greatly dependent on the geographic region, harvest year, cereal species, variety, and genotype. Considerable animal-to-animal variation in the ability of the liver to detoxify ergot alkaloids also exists and the impacts of factors, such as pelleting of feeds or use of binders to reduce bioavailability of alkaloids require study. Accordingly, unknowns greatly outnumber the knowns for cereal ergot and further study to help better define allowable limits for livestock would be welcome.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lethbridge, AB, Canada.
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Coufal-Majewski
authors.affiliation: Agriculture Centre, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry , Lethbridge, AB , Canada.
authors.forename: Kim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Stanford
authors.affiliation: Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada , Lethbridge, AB , Canada.
authors.forename: Tim
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: McAllister
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Biomedical Sciences, University of Saskatchewan , Saskatchewan, SK , Canada.
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Blakley
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal and Poultry Science, University of Saskatchewan , Saskatchewan, SK , Canada.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: McKinnon
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Veterinary Science, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney , Sydney, NSW , Australia.
authors.forename: Alexandre Vieira
authors.initials: AV
authors.lastname: Chaves
authors.affiliation: Lethbridge Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada , Lethbridge, AB , Canada.
authors.forename: Yuxi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
keywords: Claviceps purpurea; animal performance; ergot alkaloids; sclerotia; toxicoses