Lupinosis

Lupinosis was first recognized as a disease in Germany in 1872, when numerous sheep deaths were associated with ingesting lupin plants. Early studies in the 1880s and 1890s isolated a fungus named Cryptosporidium leptospirosis (Kühn) from affected plants, but a definitive causal link to the disease was not established at that time. A study in 1991 found two varieties of P. leptostroformis and that only one, P. leptostromiformis var leptostromiformis, produced high levels of the toxin. Subsequent research in 1994 identified a new and distinct teleomorph of the toxicogenic variety and named it Diaporthe toxica, establishing it as the true causative agent of lupinosis. The identification of D. toxica concluded over a century of investigation into the cause of lupinosis, providing clarity on the disease's etiology and facilitating the development of resistant lupin varieties. == References ==