FAyetteville, Arkansas
February 25, 2009
Four
recently patented non-toxic strains of a fungal organism called
an endophyte discovered by
University of Arkansas Professor Charles West (photo) and
Professor Emeritus Edgar Piper could provide significant
benefits to livestock producers in the "fescue belt," which
includes Arkansas and neighboring states.
The patents resulted from research by West and Piper as
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture scientists
in cooperation with fescue breeder David Sleper at the
University of Missouri. West is in the department of crop, soil
and environmental sciences. Piper is retired from the department
of animal sciences.
Tall fescue is a cool-season grass relied on by most Arkansas
and Missouri beef cattle producers as a fall, winter and spring
forage and hay crop. The dominant variety since the 1950s has
been Kentucky 31 thanks to its ability to survive drought and
persist for many years, West said.
KY31 fescue is infected by an endophyte that makes it resistant
to insect pests and tolerant of drought conditions. However, the
endophyte produces a toxic alkaloid in the grass, which lowers
calving rates and weight gain in livestock.
The recently patented endophyte strains are described as
non-toxic because they do not cause fescue toxicity in cattle,
but they still provide the benefits of pest resistance and
drought tolerance, which help the grass persist as a forage
crop, West said.
Field tests have shown that fescue infected with any of the
patented strains is as persistent during summer droughts as
KY31, West said. Cattle performance trials with three of the
patented endophytes showed that the infected fescue plants did
not cause fescue toxicosis symptoms, he added.
Field tests were conducted at the Division of Agriculture's
Arkansas Agricultural Research and Extension Center in
Fayetteville, at the Southwest Research and Extension Center at
Hope and at the Livestock and Forestry Research Station near
Batesville.
"Our data show that the cost of about $100 per acre to renovated
a KY31 fescue pasture with a new variety that is infected by a
non-toxic endophyte can be recovered in about two years of
returns from better herd performance," West said.
"This is really green technology, in every sense," West said. A
persistent and high-quality cool-season forage crop will reduce
the need to feed grain and other supplements to cattle, he said.
No genetic transformation was conducted to develop the patented
endophyte strains, West said. They were identified by a rigorous
process over about 12 years of collecting and testing hundreds
of naturally occurring endophytes. The patented strains and
others with similar characteristics were collected by West from
plants found growing in meadows and pastures in the
Mediterranean region.
Cattle producers currently balance cool-season forage crops
between those that provide either quality or persistence, West
said. Higher quality cool-season grasses include annuals such as
ryegrass or low-persistence perennials, such as endophyte-free
fescue.
"This technology allows seed companies to provide high quality
fescue varieties that also have the stand persistence not found
in endophyte-free fescues," West said.
Several seed companies have expressed interest in commercial
licensing rights to the patented endophytes, West said. One or
more new varieties of non-toxic endophyte infected fescue could
be available by 2010 in small quantities and widely available by
2011, he added.
Fescue varieties infected by non-toxic endophytes discovered by
scientists in New Zealand are currently marketed. New varieties
infected by the Arkansas endophytes will give producers more
choices of varieties with a range of genetic traits, West said.
Seed companies interested in licensing the patented endophytes
may contact Nathan McKinney at the University of Arkansas
Technology Licensing Office |
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