Plant Pathologists Fighting Global Disease Threat To Wheat Supply
Pastor Dale Morgan
Plant Pathologists Fighting Global Disease Threat To Wheat Supply*
A highly virulent new race of stem rust known as Ug99 first appeared in
Africa in 1999 and has become "a serious and imminent threat to world
wheat and barely production," according to a research study by the North
American Millers Association and U.S. wheat and barley producers.
by Staff Writers
St. Paul MN (SPX) May 08, 2007
A new, highly destructive strain of wheat stem rust is continuing to
evolve and has the potential to devastate wheat production worldwide,
say plant pathologists with The American Phytopathological Society (APS).
Stem rust of wheat was responsible for massive epidemics on wheat during
the early 20th Century in North America. In the mid-1950s, wheat
breeders developed wheat that had genetic resistance to the disease,
making it all but disappear. Despite this success, a new, virulent
strain of wheat stem rust, Ug99, evolved in Uganda and has already
spread into Kenya, Ethiopia and Yemen, with the potential to spread into
Pakistan, India, and China, and eventually North America.
"This new race could attack wheat varieties in many countries and could
virtually overcome most of the wheat resistant varieties around the
globe," said David Marshall, research leader with the USDA-ARS, Raleigh, NC.
According to Marshall, if this new strain were to reach regions at risk,
it could create epidemics more severe than farmers have encountered in
decades and destroy farmers' harvests in wheat-producing areas worldwide.
New information on the research being done nationally and
internationally to combat this disease, including with the Global Rust
Initiative, will be addressed during the "Stem Rust: A Threat to Global
Wheat Production" symposium on August 1 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. The
symposium will present the latest on new sources for global resistance
to stem rust, details on how the disease is mutating, and what's in
store for North America, including information on how the disease
affects wheat grown in the U.S. and Canada.
The symposium will be held during the joint meeting of The American
Phytopathological Society (APS) and the Society of Nematologists (SON).
The meeting will take place July 28 - August 1, 2007, at the Town and
Country Resort and Convention Center, in San Diego, Calif.