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SCAB DISEASE, WHEAT - CANADA, USA
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A ProMED-mail post
Date: Tue, 04 May 1999 19:24:21 -0400
From: "Marjorie P. Pollack"
Source: American Phytopathogical Society [edited]
Scab Disease Causes Serious Damage to Small Grain Crops
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------ - ---------- Six successive years of disease have taken their
toll on many small grain farmers in the Red River Valley of North
Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba. This extended episode is bringing
ruin to many farmers in the region.
Additional outbreaks in Midwestern and Eastern states of the USA as
well as Central and Eastern Canada are leaving thousands of farmers
searching for solutions.
The fungal pathogen responsible for the vast devastation is primarily
_Fusarium graminearum_ which causes Fusarium head blight, more
commonly known as scab. This all-consuming disease shrivels the
kernels of small grains such as wheat, rye and barley, significantly
reducing yields.
"Moisture, at the time of flowering, is the main stimulus necessary
for scab,'' says Robert W. Stack, plant pathologist at North Dakota
State. "If a wet environment exists for an extended period, even with
low levels of the fungus in the field or temperatures that aren't
usually favorable to disease development, severe scab disease can
result.''
During the first part of this century, scab was considered a major
threat to wheat and barley and recently it has resurfaced worldwide
increasing in intensity. A succession of "wet cycle'' years beginning
in 1993 is linked to the current scab epidemic. According to the
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), "From 1991 to 1997,
American farmers lost 470 million bushels of wheat, worth $2.6
billion, because of the scab epidemic.'' These substantial losses
recently provoked a national response resulting in the development of
the "US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative,'' a consortium of scientists
and agribusiness leaders working together to solve the scab epidemic.
Stack says "Breeding for disease resistance is underway worldwide and
soon new cultivars with increased resistance to scab and developed by
conventional breeding methods will be available.''
For more information on scab, visit the APS May web feature story with
photographs and links to additional sites at http://www.scisoc.org
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ProMED-mail
[More effective fungicides, molecular marker-assisted plant breeding
techniques, and highly resistant cultivars are being employed in
controlling this serious disease - Mod.DH]
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Michele Gale-Sinex, communications manager
Center for Integrated Ag Systems
UW-Madison College of Ag and Life Sciences
Voice: (608) 262-8018 FAX: (608) 265-3020
http://www.wisc.edu/cias/
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In the towers of steel, belief goes on and on
in this heartland, in this heartland soil. --U2
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