PPCP Representation at National Corn Growers Association in Indianapolis, Indiana

Dr. Kenneth Damann of the Dept of Plant Pathology & Crop Physiology organized a session on biological control of aflatoxin at the “Corn Utilization and Technology Conference” of the National Corn Growers Association in Indianapolis, Indiana, June 4-6, 2012. Dr. Eric Tedford of Syngenta Crop Protection provided the industry perspective in his talk on “Development and refinement of Afla-Guard for reduction of aflatoxins in corn in the US”. Rebecca Sweany of the LSU AgCenter’s Dept. of Plant Pathology spoke on her work on “Aspergillus flavus niche specialization in Louisiana corn fields” which was a population biology study of soil and kernel strains. Damann concluded the session with a talk on “Aflatoxin biocontrol: What have we learned?” which emphasized the mechanism of biological control and attributes of good biocontrol strains as well as the infective toxigenic strains. Powerpoints of the presentations are available online at the National Corn Growers Association website under CUTC-Presentations.