Chemical control of fungal growth and ochratoxin A production by Aspergillus isolated from Moroccan grapes

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of three fungicides azoxystrobin (Ortiva), hexaconazole (Hexa) and pyrimethanil (Pyrus) for their ability to inhibit the radial growth and ochratoxin A (OTA) production by five ochratoxigenic strains of Aspergillus carbonarius and A. niger previously iso-lated from Moroccan grapes. Our results showed that, the addition of the fungicides to the Czapek Yeast Autolysate agar culture medium reduced the growth of the ochratoxigenic strains. Pyrimethanil caused total inhibition of spore germination and growth of the five strains, for all dose tested. Where-as hexaconazole totally inhibited the growth of 4 strains and gave growth for the MUCL 49227 strain (2.67 mm/day) at sublethal concentration. The reduction in radial growth was less marked for azoxystrobin, with growth rate varying between 0 and 6.37 mm/day depending on the strain and the azoxystrobin concentration. Analysis of variance showed that the effect of single factors (fungicides, concentration and strain) and their interactions on growth and OTA production were highly significant (P=0.000).These findings suggest that the use of tested fungicides have to potential for reduction in production of OTA.