Iowa Department of Agriculture to Screen for Aflatoxin Starting Aug. 31
By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com
The Iowa Department of Agriculture will require that milk being produced in Iowa be tested for traces of aflatoxin starting August 31, 2012. Aflatoxin is a by-product of grain fungus or mold and it’s a carcinogen. Aflatoxin can often be found in host crops that are more susceptible to infection by – Aspergillus after a significant period of time being exposed to a high-humidity environment or in this case damage from stressful conditions such as drought.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has established guidelines for acceptable levels for aflatoxin in milk or livestock feed. Certain types of livestock feed can contain levels of up to 300 ppb – for finishing cattle, where as anything for human conception must be less than 20 ppb and for milk it can’t be any higher than 0.5 ppb.
“We were well aware that aflatoxin could be an issue this year due to the historic drought conditions,” Northey said. “Now that farmers are starting to harvest silage, and corn in some cases, it is appropriate to begin this screening process to make sure our milk supply remains safe.”
More information about aflatoxin in corn can be found under the “Dealing with Disasters” page in the Iowa State University Extension Outreach paper - www.extension.iastate.edu/topic/recovering-disasters.