美国农业部网8月13日消息，美国农业研究局（ARS）的植物病理学家彼特致力于研究去除棉花中的有害黄曲霉。带有黄曲霉毒素的棉籽作为载体一旦转移到动物的奶中，就会威胁到人类的健康和生命。彼特经过20年的研究，终于发现一种既环保又有效的生物防治方法。良性曲霉素如果运用得当，可以抑制它们的同类-黄曲霉毒素的生成。（国际情报研究室译）

　　【原文】

　　Friendly Fungus Helps Keep Aflatoxin Out of Cotton 

　　By Linda Tokarz

　　August 13, 2007 

　　In a brutal battle for food and space, two fungal cousins are currently duking it out across the nation's cotton fields. Thanks to biological control strategies developed by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), the better of these two microscopic relatives is winning. 

　　Plant pathologist Peter Cotty, who is part of the ARS Food and Feed Safety Research Unit at New Orleans, La., but is located at the University of Arizona-Tucson, instigated this competition. By pitting a benign strain of Aspergillus against its noxious kin, he's helping rid U.S. cotton of a harmful and costly toxin. 

　　While invisible and odorless, the Aspergillus fungi that Cotty is focused on can churn out potent poisons called alfatoxins. These carcinogenic compounds—linked to impaired growth, cancer and death—would threaten human health if stringent food safety standards, set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, weren't in place to screen out contaminated products. 

　　When cottonseed becomes infested with toxin-making fungi, it must be discarded or severely downgraded. That's because the seed is a major feed of dairy cows, and any toxins that might be present could transfer to the animals' milk. Every year, aflatoxin is responsible for ruining $3 million to $8 million worth of cottonseed in the American Southwest.

　　Knowing that few control options exist for farmers, Cotty set out two decades ago to find an environmentally sound and effective solution. Eventually, he discovered one, in the form of a benign strain of Aspergillus flavus that, when applied correctly to cotton fields, can outgrow and outlive its more menacing cousins.

　　After years of rigorous studies with the strain, which is dubbed AF36, ARS obtained approval from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1996 to test the new biocontrol in Arizona cotton fields.

　　At that time, only 120 acres of commercial cotton were treated with AF36. Now, more than 100,000 acres of U.S. cotton have been treated, greatly reducing levels of harmful aflatoxins.