Tricothecene mycotoxins

The tricothecene mycotoxin T2 is produced primarily by Fusarium sporotriclnoides and has been reported in many parts of the world (Beasley 1989 Wang et al. 1998). 

In November 1981, the United States produced more evidence. As one senior State Department official told a Senate inquiry, We now have the smoking gun. Analysis of water from a Kampuchean village and of rock samples from two separate sites in Laos all revealed the prescence of Tricothecene mycotoxins. One sample contained levels of mycotoxin twenty times higher than those recorded in any natural outbreaks. Furthermore, the tricothecene mycotoxins do not occur naturally in the combination identified in southeast Asia, said the spokesman. Having compared the symptoms reported by victims with the known symptoms of Tz poisoning, the State Department concluded that the fit was perfect. ... 

O 30.87%. Tricothecene mycotoxin isolated from Fusatium tricinctum I. R. Hamburg et al. Tetrahedron 24. 

Officially at least, it remains the US position that prior to 1985, the Soviet Union was involved in the production, transfer and use of tricothecene mycotoxins for hostile purposes in Laos, Kampuchea and Afghanistan in violation of its legal obligation under international law as codified in the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention of 1972 . ... 

A point of potential misidentification should be mentioned here. 2C-T-2 has occasionally been called, simply, T-2. This abbreviated nickname has also been used for T-2 Toxin, a mycotoxin of the Tricothecene group, formed mainly by the Fusarium spp. This is the infamous warfare agent in Southeast Asia, which was finally identified as bee feces rather than a Soviet military adventure. T-2 and 2C-T-2 are radically different compounds. 

Mycotoxins of most interest are those found in human food or in the feed of domestic animals. They include the ergot alkaloids produced by Claviceps sp aflatoxins and related compounds produced by Aspergillus sp and the tricothecenes produced by several genera of fungi imperfecti, primarily Fusarium sp. 

In addition to the former Soviet Union, contamination has been reported in other countries, including the UK, Germany, Finland, and New Zealand. In the UK in 1982 tricothecenes were detected in over 50 per cent of a sample of breakfast cereals. In an outbreak in India in 1987, several hundred people were affected with severe symptoms following the eating of contaminated bread, and several different mycotoxins were detected in the flour used to make the bread. 

The evidence regarding trichothecene mycotoxins was further undermined by reports from Canada and Britain. A Canadian study published in February 1986 was cited as supporting the US charges, but although low levels of tricothecene were reported in the samples tested the study failed to reach any conclusion about the use of toxic weapons. The report, which described Fusarium as ubiquitous also pointed out the difficulty of establishing comparisons with naturally occurring tricothecene levels. ... 

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