MYCOLOGIA 



Vol. II May, 1910 No. 3 



MONASCUS PURPUREUS IN SILAGE 



R. E. Buchanan 

 (With Plates 22 and 23, Containing 31 Figures) 



During the year 1909, the writer had frequent occasion to 

 examine the molds which are common in silage not properly pre- 

 pared or cared for. Such moldy silage has in several instances 

 caused the death of farm animals, particularly horses ; the symp- 

 toms of the disease being those of " forage poisoning " or " equine 

 cerebro-spinal meningitis." Numerous cultures have been made 

 and many molds isolated from different silages, among them 

 several species of PenicilHum, Aspergillus, Mucor, the mycelium 

 of a hymenomycete (probably a Coprinus) , and, in one instance, 

 Monascus. The last mentioned was practically the only mold 

 found in one sample. Inasmuch as no record has been found of 

 its occurrence in America and no record of its occurrence in 

 silage, a brief account of the fungus is here given with notes 

 on its morphology and cultural characters. 



In March, 1909, a moldy sample of silage was brought to the 

 laboratory by a veterinarian. It was part of the contents of a 

 silo and had been the apparent cause of the death of nine horses 

 that had been fed upon it. Experimental evidence was brought 

 forward later by Dean Stange, of the Department of Veterinary 

 Medicine at the Iowa State College, which demonstrated the 

 causal relationship of this silage to the disease. An examination 

 of the material showed it to be thoroughly infected and matted 

 with the mycelium of Monascus. Although no experimental evi- 



[Mycologia for March, 1910 (2: 43-98), was issued March 8, 1910] 



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