Weigh it, test it for moisture and put it under the microscope?

Grain elevator operators wanting to protect themselves against an introduction of Karnal bunt contaminated seed might find the microscope a wise investment in the future, said Dr. Karl Steddom, Texas Agricultural Experiment Station plant pathologist in Amarillo.

Steddom explained what elevator owners and operators need to do to protect themselves from Karnal bunt contamination during the Texas High Plains Grain Elevator Workshop on Tuesday.

"As grain elevator managers, it won't be a pretty sight if you discover it in your elevator," he said.

Attebury Grain discovered first hand what Karnal bunt in the elevator can cost in its Wichita Falls and Fort Worth facilities.

Turning the wheat from bin to bin, catching samples and certifying it as clean or contaminated were only a few of the steps necessary as U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors tracked the grain from four counties where Karnal bunt had been found to various delivery points, said Stephen Tillery, with Attebury Grain in Amarillo.

Common bunt is a nuisance, but not a big problem, Steddom said. Karnal bunt, on the other hand, has a zero-tolerance quarantine on it, he said. Without a microscope, there's no way to tell the difference between the two diseases. With a microscope, one can easily detect the large thick-walled spores of Karnal bunt.

Karnal bunt first showed up in McCulloch County in 1997 and while infected fields were plowed down, it showed back up in 2001, racking up an estimated $24 million in losses to growers and elevators.

It is currently limited to San Saba, Young, Archer, Baylor and Throckmorton counties. It could become a wider-spread problem, however, when these fields become deregulated and the spores are still out there, Steddom said.

"If growers are careful about the seed they plant, they won't get it. It's not going to walk over by itself. Growers need to plant clean seed and not allow dirty combines in their fields. And then the elevators need to make sure they watch the seed that is coming into their facility."

Hubert Maples, a West Texas A&M University graduate student, is conducting a study on fields in the six counties where Karnal bunt has been found. Not only did the fields still have spores, but some neighboring fields also had the spores - and at least one field has already been deregulated.

Once deregulated, the field in not required to be further tested, but Steddom said "we know Karnal bunt spores can last in the soil for up to five years."

Steddom said it is likely the initial outbreaks of Karnal bunt were the result of planting contaminated seed. Spores in the contaminated seed can be killed by treating seed with a fungicide. However, once the spores are in the soil, a seed treatment will be ineffective, he said.

"When the right conditions come together (susceptible host, pathogen and humid, cool weather), we'll see the problem," Maples said.

Both Karnal and common bunt will have the same fishy smell and that is the first indicator to check out the load of grain, Steddom said. There is a big size difference between Karnal bunt and common bunt spores, and it can easily be seen under a simple microscope.

"If the grain starts making its way up here, there could be a problem," he said. "You find what you are looking for. Nobody is looking, because nobody wants to know. But remember, it was the grain elevators who really got hurt before."