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Agriculture Director Chuck
Hartke told an Asian soybean rust research planning meeting that
a USDA lab in Beltsville, Md., confirmed the presence of the
fungal disease on soybean leaf samples collected in a University
of Illinois test plot adjacent to a sentinel plot in Pope
County. "This discovery, this late in the growing season, will
have no impact on the 2006 soybean crop," Hartke said. "If the
fungus had arrived here earlier, when beans were developing and
setting pods, it potentially could have caused significant
production losses. Fortunately, the crop has matured, harvest is
nearing completion and no damage will occur."
Pope County is located in southeast Illinois, along the
Kentucky border, where rust was detected last Friday in seven
counties. The wind-borne spores that cause the disease are
believed to have blown into the region from the southern United
States about two weeks ago.
Asian soybean rust now has infected 113 counties in 10 states
this year. The Illinois and Kentucky cases are the northernmost
detections.
"Our best defense against soybean rust is a hard frost," said
Jim Larkin, Soybean Rust Program manager for the Illinois
Department of Agriculture. "The disease simply cannot survive
this far north without a green, living host."
Asian soybean rust (Phakopsora pachyrhizi) causes small,
pustular lesions on the foliage and pods of more than 95 plant
species, including soybeans. It also infects kudzu, an exotic
nuisance weed present in southern Illinois. While the health of
the kudzu plant is not severely affected by the disease, the
plant serves as a reservoir for the soybean rust pathogen.
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The disease was first recorded in
Japan in 1903 and identified for the first time in the Western
Hemisphere in Hawaii in 1994. It was confirmed in the continental
United States in 2004, the same year Illinois adopted a
comprehensive plan to identify and control the disease. The plan, a
coordinated effort between the Illinois Soybean Association,
University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, National
Soybean Research Center, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection
Service, and the Illinois Department of Agriculture, emphasizes
early detection and timely fungicide applications.
"The soybean checkoff has taken a lead in Asian soybean rust
research and appreciates the working relationship that has developed
between these agencies," said Bryan Hieser, chairman of the Illinois
Soybean Association Supply Committee. "Through the efforts of the
coordination committee, all the pieces came together and we were
able to disseminate the positive find in a timely manner."
The University of Illinois Plant Clinic diagnosed rust on the
leaf samples Oct. 11 and sent them to the Beltsville lab for
confirmatory testing. Results came back positive on Friday. Scouts
now are surveying other fields to determine the severity and extent
of the infestation.
Asian soybean rust is of particular concern to Illinois farmers
because of the damage it can cause. Soybeans are a lucrative, $3
billion cash crop in the state, and yield losses in countries where
the fungus has gone undetected and untreated have been as high as 80
percent.
[Illinois
Department of Agriculture news release] |
