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Pictorial supplement to The Fifth Kingdom - Chapter 21

Mycotoxins in food and feed

(14 pictures)    



Mycotoxins - ergots, the overwintering sclerotia of Claviceps purpurea, which replace the grains of the host grass, commonly rye.



Mycotoxins - a prescription drug for migraine, containing ergotamine tartrate.



Mycotoxins - Are the ergot alkaloids part of the struggle for survival?

Mice might eat the ergots and prevent the fungus from reproducing sexually (the ergot's boxing gloves represent its compound perithecial ascomata).



Mycotoxins - The hallucinogenic alkaloids might trigger visions of delight...



...or send the mouse on a really bad trip.



Mycotoxins - Aflatoxin really is one of the most toxic and carcinogenic substances known, as this label emphasizes.



Mycotoxins - fluorescence of aflatoxin B in cultures of Aspergillus parasiticus.



Mycotoxins - the yellowish colonies are of Aspergillus flavus, a producer of aflatoxin. The green colonies are of  Penicillium, another mycotoxin-producing genus (ochratoxin, patulin, penitrem, PR toxin).



Mycotoxins - Is aflatoxin a weapon in the battle for food?  Mice could be serious competitors for peanuts...



...but aflatoxin might be an effective means of excluding them.



Mycotoxins - Stachybotrys, cause of stachbotryotoxicosis of horses (and now a source of controversy in human disease as well). 



Mycotoxins - "hole-in-the-head disease" of horses - leucoencephalomalacia, caused by toxins of Fusarium moniliforme..



Mycotoxins - corn attacked by Fusarium graminearum, source of zearalenone and vomitoxin.



Mycotoxins - Pithomyces chartarum which causes facial eczema of sheep.


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