ABSTRACT
Fusarium spp. infection, mycotoxin contamination, and some agronomic traits in winter barley as affected by N fertilization under Serbia conditions

Vesna Krnjaja1*, Violeta Mandic1, Tanja Petrovic2, Slavica Stankovic3, Milica Lucev3, Ana Obradovic3, and Nenad Micic1
 
Fusarium head blight (FHB), caused by different Fusarium species, is the most devastating disease of small cereal grains, including barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) This study aimed to investigate the influence of N fertilization rates (0 kg N ha-1 - N0, 50 kg N ha-1 - N50, and 100 kg N ha-1 - N100) on Fusarium and mycotoxin (deoxynivalenol - DON and zearalenone - ZEA) contamination and some agronomic traits (plant height - PH, spike length - SL and thousand kernel weight - TKW) in two barley cultivars, NS 565 and Etincel, harvested in 2019 and 2020. Climatic conditions during two successive seasons were favourable for Fusarium infection, providing a high incidence of FHB-causing species, of which F. graminearum species complex (FGSC) strains were the most frequent (on average > 34% per treatment). The N rates and barley cultivars had nonsignificant effects on the incidence of FGSC strains. However, N rates significantly influenced mycotoxin levels in 2019, with the highest DON at N100 (5209.67 μg kg-1) and ZEA levels at N50 (47.11 μg kg-1). In 2020, there were nonsignificant differences between N rates for DON levels, while ZEA was not detected. In both years, the six-row barley ‘Etincel’ had significantly higher DON and ZEA levels than the two-row barley ‘NS 565’. Agronomic traits, PH and SL, were affected by barley cultivars, and TKW was affected by N rates and barley cultivars. The highest TKW was at N100, followed by N50 and N0.
Keywords: Barley, deoxynivalenol, Fusarium spp., Hordeum vulgare, nitrogen rates, zearalenone.
1Institute for Animal Husbandry, Autoput 16, 11080, Belgrade, Serbia.
2University of Belgrade, Faculty of Agriculture, Nemanjina 6, 11080, Belgrade, Serbia.
3Maize Research Institute, Zemun Polje”, Slobodana Bajica 1, 11185, Belgrade, Serbia.
*Corresponding author (vkrnjaja@istocar.bg.ac.rs).