April 6, 2006
From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org>
[1] South Australia
[2]
Expert Panel on Ug99 Outbreak in East Africa
[3] Wheat imports
to India allowed
[4] ARS,
cooperators fight new Ug99 strain
****************
[1] South
Australia
Date: 6 Apr 2006
From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org>
Source: www.abc.net.au
[edited]
<http://www.abc.net.au/rural/news/content/2006/s1610195.htm>
South Australia could be facing one of its worst cropping
seasons for the fungal disease stem rust. New strains of the
disease have been found in wheat plants from across the Eyre
Peninsula and the southern half of the Yorke Peninsula.
Hugh Wallwork of the South Australian Research and Development
Institute says wet conditions over summer helped the disease to
thrive. "I think it would be the most that I have come across in
the last 20 years," he said. "To have this much stem rust at
this time of the year with a lot of volunteers [plants] out in
the field and looking like an early sowing season, it's looking
worse than it has for a long time."
****************
[2]
Expert Panel on Ug99 Outbreak in East Africa
Date: 13 March 2006
From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org>
Source:
www.islam-online.net edited]
<http://www.islam-online.net/English/Science/2006/03/article04.shtml>
Wheat ranks as a primary source of food and livelihood for
hundreds of millions of people globally, especially in
developing countries. But scientists are concerned that a newly
discovered strain of one of the most dangerous pathogens to
affect wheat could cause a global food crisis. First discovered
in Uganda in 1999, Ug99 is a variant of the wheat pathogen known
as stem rust, and expectations are that it will spread from its
origin in eastern Africa to the rest of the wheat-growing world.
Over the past 150 years, stem rust pandemics have led to famines
in India and massive grain losses in North America.
Modern breeding methods, combined with free international
exchange of experimental wheat lines, have now led to the
development and distribution of wheat varieties that have the
ability to resist rust.
An "Expert Panel on the Stem Rust Outbreak in East Africa," led
by Dr.
Ronnie Coffman, evaluated the threat of the new wheat stem rust
variant, Ug99. Coffman presented the report of their study at a
press conference held in Nairobi last September [2005] a day
before the Global Rust Initiative (GRI) summit.
The Threat
"It is only a matter of time until Ug99 reaches across the Saudi
Arabian peninsula into the Middle East, South Asia, and
eventually East Asia and the Americas," said Coffman.
Dr. Ravi Singh, a scientist working with the International Maize
and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), said that the disease was
first discovered in Uganda in 1999. It later appeared in Kenya
in 2001 followed by Ethiopia in 2003, showing its devastating
potential to spread and destroy.
Need for Global Action
According to Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Norman Borlaug,
"Without an epidemic for the past 50 years, maybe we've become
complacent."
Ug99 has so far survived attempts to curtail it, according to
the panel of experts. Since it is difficult to stop, the only
option, especially for small-scale farmers, is to identify and
develop resistant strains, explained Kiome, director of the
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute.
A Global Rust Initiative (GRI) will have these recommendations
as their mandate, creating an international partnership led by
the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT),
the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry
Areas (ICARDA), the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute
(KARI) and the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization
(EARO).
Among the measures recommended by the panel is the monitoring of
wheat populations by means of trap nurseries. These nurseries
use wheat varieties known to have resistant genes and test their
reaction to rust disease. Data obtained from the reaction of
these resistant varieties is used to identify the different
forms of pathogen.
As the pathogen population changes itself to infect wheat
cultivars with different resistant genes, variations in the
pathogen population must be identified. This identification
process must be done through race-analysis for the
Kenya-Ethiopia region, adjacent areas and beyond, according to
the panel.
Another recommendation is the establishment of warning systems
based on data using the Geographical Information System, which
coordinates data collected using satellite imagery and data
collected at the fields.
The panel also recommended a breeding strategy that would
incorporate diverse genetic resistance to Ug99 into the modern
cultivars currently grown in North America and Asia before the
new strain of pathogen migrates to those areas. DNA-marker
assisted selection should be used where feasible.
Chemical intervention for short-term control would be equally
important in curtailing the wheat disease, and should be
employed by all producers, according to the recommendations.
Seed multiplication agencies and community-based organizations
should also be encouraged to produce commercial seeds for the
newly developed stem rust resistant varieties.
Baseline studies need to be made in crops, both infected and
not, and impact studies carried out after the use of resistant
varieties. Such studies would have to take into consideration
alternative crops and livelihood systems, because of the
socio-economic implications of the new disease on
wheat-producing countries.
Human resources need to be augmented through training programs.
Advanced degree training should be provided for people
associated with the project, in addition to in-country practical
courses and specialized courses outside the country.
Well-equipped laboratories and effective communication systems
are also needed to address the new threat. Facilities for wheat
research should therefore be established and strengthened in
Ethiopia and Kenya.
Special support needs to be given to communication strategies to
raise and maintain awareness of the stem rust problem, while
enhancing communication among scientists and other concerned
stakeholders
Appropriate advanced research institutes like the ones in North
America and Australia should be engaged in the GRI that utilize
their own resources, said the panel report. CIMMYT and ICARDA
should receive additional resources from advanced research
institutes and other donors to coordinate the GRI and meet their
respective research responsibilities necessary to avert an
epidemic.
"For once, Africa can help the rest of the world," said Dr
Marianne Banzinger, the Director of CIMMYT's African Livelihoods
Program. "There is time to make a difference. This is a chance
we cannot afford to miss."
[Byline: Ochieng Ogodo ogodo16@hotmail.com]
****************
[3] Wheat imports
to India allowed
Date: 12 Feb 2006
From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org>
Source: www.hindu.com
[edited]
<http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200602121050.htm>
Expressing concern over the government's decision to import
wheat after a span of 7 years, eminent agriculture scientist M S
Swaminathan has warned against complacency in matters relating
to food security.
"The decision to allow wheat import is a wake-up call that shows
any complacency will be disastrous for food and national
security," Swaminathan told PTI here.
Earlier this month [Feb 2006], the government decided to allow
importation of 5 lakh [one lakh is 100 000; so 5 lakh are 500
000] metric tons of wheat to tide over the short supplies in
Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.
The import decision is also a "wake-up call" in the sense that
there is no point to relax at a time when stem rust such as the
'Ug 99' [strain] is creating havoc to the wheat crop in Africa.
"We should take adequate safeguard against such stem rust which
might intrude into our country," he said.
****************
[4] ARS,
cooperators fight new Ug99 strain
Date: 15 Feb 2006
From: ProMED-mail<promed@promedmail.org>
Source:
www.theprairiestar.com [edited]
<http://www.theprairiestar.com/articles/2006/02/15/special_section/seed-planting-tillage/seed04.txt>
Potential damage to African wheat from a new strain of wheat
stem rust could be avoided, thanks to research that Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) scientists have shared with researchers
in East Africa.
Researchers have screened U.S. wheat varieties in Kenya for
resistance to Ug99, the most virulent new strain of wheat stem
rust in 50 years. This could help avoid a major threat to wheat
growing there and around the world.
Leaders in wheat research from ARS and other organizations met
at a Global Rust Summit organized by Nobel Peace Prize winner
and father of the "Green Revolution" Norman Borlaug and held in
Nairobi, Kenya, in September 2005, to enlist aid to address the
Ug99 problem. Ug99 was first found in Uganda in 1999, but it has
now spread to Kenya and Ethiopia, with the potential to
seriously damage wheat production.
M. Kay Simmons, ARS national program leader for grain crops, and
A. Richard Bennett, ARS national program leader for plant
health, traveled to Africa to contribute to the summit.
Even before the summit took place, a partnership of ARS, the
Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute and the International
Maize and Wheat Improvement Center began testing more than 800
U.S. wheat cultivars and genetic resources in field trials in
Kenya.
While most U.S. bread wheats are vulnerable, results from the
Kenya evaluation revealed good sources of resistance in each
class of wheat.
The assistance that has been offered to Kenya was initiated to
answer the call for helping preserve wheat production in
developing countries. But the research also offers basic
information that ARS may need some day, should Ug99 ever appear
in the United States.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific
research agency.
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[The cereal crop plant wheat (bread wheat, _Triticum aestivum_
and durum wheat, _Triticum turgidum_) develops symptoms of stem
rust when infected with the fungus _Puccinia graminis f.sp.
tritici_. Severe losses due to wheat stem rusts have been held
at bay worldwide due to effective resistance breeding.
Part [1] above is the most recent, reporting new strains of stem
rust in Australia. Little detail is provided on their
characteristics with regards to resistance-breaking potential.
This underlines the fact that new strains of the fungus can and
will emerge over time to threaten currently grown varieties of
wheat.
This moderator has included 3 other recent articles on another
new strain of stem rust known as Ug99. It has spread from Uganda
to Kenya and Ethiopia and has caught the attention of
international plant pathologists for its potential to become a
world threat. An international meeting was held on Ug99 in 2005
and some of the points discussed there are outlined in part [2].
The full report of the meeting is to be found in the first link
below. The threat of introducing this strain to India is
commented on in part [3]. This biosecurity issue is linked to
the recently announced (Feb 2006) willingness to import large
quantities of wheat after a 7-year prohibition. Finally, the
long-term plan to combat new strains of stem rust -- now, as in
the past -- relies on finding, breeding or creating wheat
cultivars with resistance to any new strain of the pathogen.
Part [4] outlines ongoing efforts in this regard with respect to
strain Ug99.
Map: Australia Eyre and Yorke peninsulas:
<http://www.wilmap.com.au/samaps/samap.html>
Pictures:
<http://www.cdl.umn.edu/gifs/wsr.jpg>
<http://www.cdl.umn.edu/nomenclature/inf_set.jpg>
Links:
http://www.cimmyt.org/english/wps/news/2005/aug/stemRust.htm
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/Publications.htm?seq_no_115=182455
http://www.csiro.au/csiro/content/standard/psfe,,.html
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050924/food.asp
- Mod.JAD]
[see also in the
archive:
2005
----
Wheat stem rust, Ug99, new strain - East Africa 20050928.2849
Wheat stem rust, new strain - Uganda 20050912.2698
2002
----
Wheat stem rust fungus, new virulence genes - So Afr
20020814.5049 2000
----
Wheat stem rust in resistant wheat lines - Uganda (02)
20000713.1162 Wheat stem rust in resistant wheat lines - Uganda
20000702.1092
1999
----
Stem-rust fungus, mutant, wheat - Uganda 19990519.0812]
