Fusarium head blight on Quench barley malt cultivar: product quality.

Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a cereal disease widespread throughout the world and mainly studied in wheat. In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) its fungal agents can affect yield crops and reduce the quality of grains for beer manufacture due to the production of several mycotoxins. Furthermore, during the malting process, some Fusarium species can produce special proteins called “hydrophobins” responsible of “beer gushing” that influences beer quality. Artificial inoculations on cv Quench with Fusarium graminearum, F. culmorum and F. poae have been performed in experimental field trials in the years 2013-2014, to evaluate the effects of FHB on barley malt. Disease incidence and severity were assessed. Fusarium Damaged Kernels (FDK), the presence of Deoxynivalenol (DON), T-2 and HT-2 mycotoxins were evaluated. In addition, the species of Fusarium isolated were morphologically and molecularly identified. The results showed that the average incidence of mixed inoculum (F. graminearum and F. culmorum) was 15% while F. poae alone 28%. These low values were confirmed by FDK. Fusarium spp. was reisolated on 2% of the tested kernels, and F. culmorum was the prevalent species. The levels of DON, T-2 and HT-2 mycotoxins were lower than the limits set by the European regulations and recommendations. We can conclude that the trends of the temperature and precipitation, in the investigated area and at the time of the study, were not favorable for the establishment of FHB disease. Then the grains of barley malt maintained their quality avoiding the gushing risk.