Ergovaline levels in cultivars of Festuca arundinacea

Ergovaline is an alkaloid toxic to livestock, produced by fungal endophytes infecting grasses. The percentage of seeds infected with the fungal endophyte Neotyphodium coenophialum and the presence of ergovaline in seed and forage samples of 10 commercial cultivars of tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea) were determined. Infection with endophytic fungus was detected in seeds of eight cultivars. The percentage of infection in seeds of these cultivars ranged from 1 to 72%. Ergovaline was analyzed by HPLC with fluorescence detection and was detected in the eight cultivars of F. arundinacea infected by the endophyte N. coenophialum. Ergovaline contents in commercial seed lots of endophyte infected F. arundinacea ranged from 0.02 to 3.71 μg g−1 (average 1.9 μg g−1). Analysis of ergovaline could be a better method in determining the presence of endophytic fungi in seed samples when the percentage of infection is very low. There was an exponential relationship between the percentage of infection of the seed lot and ergovaline concentration across all cultivars (R2=0.876). The standard error of estimation was 0.618. The ergovaline contents detected in vegetative plant tissue samples of individual plants could cause cattle toxicity problems regarding critical levels reported in literature.