Occurrence of Beauvericin and Enniatins in Wheat Affected by Fusarium avenaceum head blight

We evaluated Fusarium contamination and the levels of hexadepsipeptide mycotoxins in 13 wheat samples affected by head blight in Finland. Fusarium avenaceum was the dominant species (91%) isolated from all samples, but isolates of F. culmorum (4%), F. tricinctum (3%), and F. poae (2%) also were recovered. Beauvericin(0.64 to 3.5 µg/g) was detected in all 13 samples. Enniatin B (trace to 4.8 µg/g) was detected in 12 samples,enniatin B1 (trace to 1.9 µg/g) was detected in 8 samples, and enniatin A1 (trace to 6.9 µg/g) was detected in 10 samples. Ten of 13 strains of F. avenaceum and 2 strains of F. poae and F. tricinctum produced beauvericin in culture on rice (trace to 70, 9.4, and 33 µg/g, respectively). All strains also produced enniatins (trace to 2,700 µg/g). This is the first report on the natural cooccurence of beauvericin and enniatins in wheat infected predominantly by F. avenaceum.