The growing interest in health risks associated with toxigenic fungi and
related mycotoxins has led to the development of a number of research
projects during the past decade in several European countries and a
great deal of information has been produced on the natural occurrence of
mycotoxins in plants, foods and feeds. The differences in environmental
conditions (temperature, light, rainfall etc. ) and in exposed
cultivated plants (type of cereals, cultivars etc. ) in the distinct
European countries have significantly influenced the distribution of
specific toxigenic fungi and related mycotoxicological problems. In
addition, biogeographically structured lineages within some important
toxigenic fungi have been recently discovered, of reproductive
isolation. Transglobal showing a long evolutionary history transposition
of plant products seems to have significantly contributed to the
spreading of toxigenic species and lineages worldwide. Therefore, the
migration of agriculturally important toxigenic fungi generated by trade
exchanges may represent a major source of inoculum for new plant
diseases in Europe and for a wider genetic diversity of local
populations. It was our goal to provide the reader with an update of
researches and surveys on the natural occurrence of toxigenic fungi and
mycotoxins performed at a European level during the last 5-10 years. The
editors are extremely grateful to the EU-COST-835 "Agriculturally
important toxigenic fungi" for the financial support that allowed a
number of European scientists to meet several times over the past five
years to collaborate and exchange information about research advances on
toxigenic fungi and mycotoxins.
