Spencer, IA: (Jan. 30, 2012) - Ethanol plants in Ohio have rejected corn because of the fungal disease vomitoxin.
 
Usually found in wheat, vomitoxin sickens livestock if consumed in large amounts. It thrived under the cool, wet weather this past autumn in Ohio.
 
Heavy autumn rains stalled the corn harvest in the Eastern Corn Belt and caused the fungal problems. The concentration of vomitoxin in corn byproducts such as distiller’s dried gain is three times that of whole corn kernels.
 
State officials could not comment on the levels of vomitoxin found but said the levels are not nearly as high as in 2009, another wet harvest. As a general rule,  the levels should not exceed 5 parts per million for livestock. In 2009, Ohio corn tested as high as 20 to 25 parts per million.
 
Ethanol maker POET is accepting corn at its Peipsic, Ohio plant with up to 7 parts per million vomitoxin with no discounts and rejecting corn with higher levels, according to its website.