Source: USDA/APHIS

Suspected soybean leaf samples collected in Missouri and South Carolina last week have tested positive for Phakopsora pachyrhizi, or soybean rust, at USDA’s National Plant Germplasm and Biotechnology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., today.

University of Missouri extension specialists collected suspicious looking soybean leaf samples from soybean fields in Pemiscot and New Madrid counties in Southeast Missouri on Nov. 24. Those samples were sent to the NPGBL where diagnosticians confirmed the presence of the disease.

Meanwhile, a Clemson University plant pathologist submitted suspected soybean leaf samples from four counties in South Carolina the same day. The samples from Allendale and Pickens counties tested positive for the disease.

Soybean rust, a disease spread primarily by wind-borne spores, was first discovered in the United States on Nov. 10 in Louisiana. Since that time, the fungus has been found in eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina.

USDA encourages growers to contact USDA’s Extension Service, their State Department of Agriculture, and their crop consultants to obtain information on what fungicides are registered for use in their states, as well as when these fungicides should be used.

For more information on soybean rust, please visit www.aphis.usda.gov

Jefferson City, Missouri
November 30, 2004

Soybean rust announcement in Missouri gives producers time to prepare

Source: Missouri Department of Agriculture

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today that Asian soybean rust (Phakospora pachyrhizi) has been confirmed in Missouri. The samples were collected by University of Missouri Extension scientists from soybean fields in Pemiscot and New Madrid counties in Southeast Missouri and tested by the USDA National Plant Germplasm and Biotechnology Laboratory in Beltsville, Md. The fungus will have no impact on this year’s harvest.

“Confirming the presence of soybean rust at this time of year is probably the best scenario we could have hoped for,” says Mike Brown, state entomologist with the Missouri Department of Agriculture (MDA). “Growers, extension personnel, agriculture officials and industry will have several months to prepare for managing this new soybean disease before the next growing season.”

MDA is working in partnership with USDA, the University of Missouri Extension and the Missouri Soybean Association in response to the recent findings. The department has adopted the existing USDA-APHIS soybean rust strategic plan and continues to take appropriate steps in educating producers and encouraging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to approve additional fungicides that would help with the treatment of soybean rust.

Soybean rust, a wind-borne pathogen, was first discovered in the U.S. on Nov. 10 at a research plot in Louisiana. Since that time, the fungus has been found in a total of seven states: Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and now, Missouri. The number of confirmed cases in the United States now stands at 18. Due to lack of green vegetation, recent snowfall and hard frosts, additional sampling is likely to cease in Missouri.

For more information regarding soybean rust, visit www.mda.mo.gov/Pest/soybeanrust.htm or call the MDA Plant Industries Division at 573-751-2462.