Pests and diseases After the first keynote lecture, four days of presentations were scheduled, grouped in a number of sessions. The largest one was on pests and diseases, including 18 presentations. Quite a number of presentations originated from the EU funded MushTV project. Helen Grogan (TEA- GASC) presented the results of a large sampling program within that project with respect to the presence of Trichoderma aggressivum (the causal agent of aggressive green mould infecti- ons) on compost yards and farms. If present, T. aggressivum is readily detectable and widespread on growing facilities with issues. No T. aggressivum was found on the compost yards that participated in the project. Mairead Kilpatrick of AFBI demonstrated in her presen- tation how small local infections of T. aggressi- vum in compost in a bulk spawn run system get distributed throughout the compost upon compost handling, when emptying the tunnels and filling the beds and subsequently develop into a massive infection. Roland Mumm (WUR) presented results on a method of detection of small local infections of T. aggressivum in bulk spawn run compost, based on the volatiles that are emitted from the compost and can be sampled from the process air. According to his research, infected compost can be recognised by its volatile blend after 10-14 days of spawn run. However, the method has never been tested on commercial scale phase 3 tunnels, so it is not ready for implementation in commercial practice. As yet, there are no data available on the detection limit and it is therefore not certain whether the detection limit is below the damage threshold.


Helen Grogan and Edward Dobbs (East Malling Research) both had a presentation on Mushroom Virus X (MVX). Grogan demonstrated that MVX can be present in compost at both compost and growing facilities and that compost under symptomatic mushrooms readily transmits AbV16 and symptoms. Especially the compost at the end of the cropping cycle proved to be highly infective. Her advice to growers was to cook-out MVX infected crops. Compost delivery trucks were mentioned as a possible vector for the disease because they are at risk of picking up infected compost debris at farms. Dobbs presented the results of a molecular analysis of MVX. By sequencing, he identified a total of 31 viral RNAs associated with the Mushroom Virus X diseases in both compost and mushrooms. These viral RNAs were shown to belong to a total of 19 different RNA viruses of which 16 were new to science. Out of this array of viruses only a few


seem to be involved in the browning symptom that seems to be prevalent in MVX cases and the mechanism behind the development of the browning symptom is still unknown. Using this sequence information he developed molecular tests allowing all 31 identified RNAs to be quantified using qPCR. EMR is offering this service as to interested parties.


Michael Kertesz (Sydney University), Lee Smith (Ausdiagnostics) and Werner Rossouw (Univer- sity of Pretoria) gave presentations on sampling and detection of mushroom pathogens on commercial farms. They showed that a lot of progress was made since ISMS 2012 and that they were able to accurately identify pathogen species in samples taken. The next step will probably be how this information can be used by growers to keep diseases under control. Perhaps we can expect more results on how such an early warning system will pan out in practice at the next congress.


Nutrition and health


The second largest session was on Nutritional values, Bioactive compounds and Medicinal aspects of mushrooms and included 17 presenta- tions. The session was opened with a keynote lecture given by prof. Fred Brouns. In his lecture he addressed the question whether science supports the benefit statements. His message was that much of the research that is published is only indicative of a possible health effect. Mushroom health science should be taken to a higher quality level in order to be able to convince the medical world. Prof Chen (Depart- ment of Cancer Biology, Beckman Research Institute ) gave an inspiring lecture on results of a phase 1 clinical trial of white button mushroom in patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer. Details can be found on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mm- HJGRsOR0). The remaining presentations were given on vitamin D in mushrooms, on commu- nication of the results of nutrition research on mushrooms, on identification of taste compo- nents in mushrooms and on the effect of ingredients in mushrooms on the immune system. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to attend many presentations in this session. Nevertheless I would like to mention one presentation that has caught my attention. Charlene Connolly presented results of her work on identification of taste components in Agaricus bisporus. She determined the chemical components in extracts of freeze-dried mushrooms from three different strains and linked the results of these analyses to the results of sensory analysis by panels that tasted the


Since ISMS 2012, a lot of progress has been made with sampling and detection of mushroom pathogens.


Ò MUSHROOM BUSINESS 15


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