A man-made biological pesticide developed by the Agricultural Research
Service (the in-house research arm of the U.S. Department of Agriculture)
to protect peanut crops from aflatoxin, a carcinogenic mold, will
soon be on the market.
The Agriculture Research Service in cooperation with the National
Peanut Research Laboratory created the biological pesticide from
spores of a nontoxic strain of Aspergillus flavus that is applied
to barley kernels. Then, those kernels are applied beneath the plant
to fight the fungi that are naturally present.
Aflatoxin occurs when specific crops, like corn and peanuts, are
stressed by drought.
In field tests, Afla-Guard, the commercial biopesticide now being
produced by a Georgia company, lowered the amount of aflatoxin by
as much as 90 percent after the first application. Repeated treatments
over years cut the spread of aflatoxin by 98 percent.
Some 8,000 acres in Alabama and Georgia were slated for treatment
this summer.
Science
Daily June 25, 2004
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