Production of metabolites from the Penicillium roqueforti complex

Penicillium roqueforti comprises three accepted species: P. carneum, which is associated with meat, cheese, and bread; P. paneum, associated primarily with bread and silage; and P. roqueforti, which is associated with various processed foods and silage. This paper reports the use of HPLC-MS and HPLC-NMR to investigate the metabolites of silage-derived strains from two areas where silage toxicoses are regularly observed (Scandinavia and eastern Canada). Only modest differences were seen between the metabolites produced by strains from Canada and Scandinavia; however, silage strains of P. paneum isolated from Quebec were poor producers of patulin. This paper reports for the first time the production of festuclavine from P. paneum. This may be important as a possible explanation for the ill thrift observed when this species is dominant in poorly ensiled materials fed to dairy cows.