Interested Members of the University Community are invited to attend the Final Oral Examination for the Degree of Master of Science of Beatrice Wausi Gedion othe Department of Plant Agriculture   

Date: Friday, March 11, 2022
Time: 9:00am 
Method: Zoom Meeting - https://zoom.us/j/95242203355?pwd=NGpCTVJOS3psYUwxeVlaMlNzQXBoQT09 
Meeting ID: 952 4220 3355
Passcode: 394510  

Thesis Title: " Improved Sampling and Detection of Mycotoxins in Maize (Zea mays L.)"   

Advisory Committee
Dr. Art Schaafsma (advisor) 
Dr. David Hooker (co-advisor
Dr. Manish Raizada    

Examination Committee
Dr. Gale Bozzo, Chair
Dr. Art Schaafsma 
Dr. David Hooker 
Dr. Chris Gillard  

ABSTRACT   

In 2018, Ontario experienced the worst epidemic of gibberella ear rot in maize (Zea mays L.). Much of the grain was highly contaminated with the mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON) which is a grading factor in Ontario; unfortunately, testing bulkloads for DON has been highly variable and a great challenge for the entire industry. DON concentrations in samples extracted from the traditional pneumatic probe were highly similar (R2= 0.81) to the near-actual DON concentration of the bulkload, suggesting that probe sampling was not a major source of variation. The comparison of lateral flow devices; Reveal® Q+, Rida®Quick DON, QuickTox™ and ELISA in measuring DON concentration as compared to LC-MS/MS found that all the kits detected the presence of DON (P=0.0001); however, some highly cross-reacted with other DON components making it difficult to interpret the results effectively. The variability in testing bulkloads of maize for DON concentrations can be reduced by grinding the entire probed sample before subsampling a small quantity for DON testing.