Aflatoxin takes its toll on Mississippi corn production, but two scientists at Mississippi State University have recently released a weapon to fight the fungus. U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service plant geneticist Paul Williams and plant pathologist Gary L. Windham developed the germplasm Mp715 that was released by the USDA-ARS and the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. All three of those weather factors are conducive to aflatoxin development.
Grain containing aflatoxin is toxic to animals.
Grain elevators reduce prices for infected corn or reject whole truckloads if the contamination is extreme. Germplasms such as Mp715 introduce superior genetic traits into existing seeds for production of improved crops. Mp715 was developed from the variety Tuxpan in a selective breeding program aimed at developing plants resistant to aflatoxin contamination. Mp715 is the third germplasm line we've released, with the last one released in 1991. There are no hybrids with aflatoxin resistance available to growers.