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New Asian soybean rust monitoring news -- Plots up in TX; national sentinel plot protocol
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By Marilyn Cummins, Editor
StopSoybeanRust.com
3/24/2005 -- New information came out today regarding the status of sentinel plots -- plants are up in south Texas -- and overall monitoring activities for Asian soybean rust in U.S. soybean- and dry-bean-production areas.
First, a "green" county -- code for "Scouted, not found" -- has appeared in Texas on the USDA Observation Map at www.sbrusa.net. The significance is revealed by selecting the first (left-hand) "zoom tool" at the top of the map then clicking at least twice on the green spot in southern-most Texas.
The map commentary for Texas then appears, and says today:
"Hidalgo County, Texas: Dr. Marvin Miller, a plant pathologist at the Texas A&M Agricultural Research Center in Weslaco, reported that plants in the sentinel plots have emerged. In addition to soybean (TX75,603), he has planted beans ('Roma II') and cowpea ('Purplehull'). (3/22/05)"
Protocol for soybean rust sentinel plots
The University of Kentucky today posted the NCSRP and USDA Protocol for Soybean Rust Sentinel Plots, dated March 17, 2005.
(NCSRP is the North Central Soybean Research Program, an educational resource for soybean producers and a coordination resource for soybean workers founded in 1992 and comprises the state soybean checkoff boards in Kansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.)
One protocol has been developed for both NCSRP and USDA plots, the plan says, and data from both programs will be uploaded to the USDA web site.
The protocol document lists three functions of the sentinel program:
1. To quantify the timing of spore production in overwintering and growing season source areas. Spore production in source regions is an important input for the soybean rust aerobiology prediction system.
2. To serve as a warning network for new disease observations in the soybean production regions. Consequently, Southern and Mississippi Valley states have a higher density of plots relative to their soybean production acreages.
3. To provide a means to collect data for epidemiological research -- research to help analyze the occurence and distribution of soybean rust and the factors that govern its spread. If possible, it said, the epidemiological research plots will not be destroyed and observations are supposed to continue beyond first detection.
The document also lays out guidelines for the numbers of plots, size, funding sources, varieties of soybeans, use of other hosts such as kudzu as sentinel plots, scouting intervals and how to report the information.
Table A1 is of particular interest, as it lists, by state: soybean production, kudzu distribution, average planting date,and the minimum number of USDA and NCRSP plots and proposed minimum distribution of sentinel plots, plus acreages and number of recommended plots for dry beans in Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. (Note: Planted soybean acres are from 2004 and expressed in thousands of acres; kudzu acres are in absolute acres, and data is not dated.)
Integration of soybean rust research
In a related presentation from February, 2005, A. Rick Bennett of the USDA Agricultural Research Service provides an informative overview in "Integration of soybean rust research -- USDA perspective". It covers fungicide trial work, screening of soybean varieties for resistance to rust, work on comparative genomic sequencing of both Phakopsora pachyrhizi and P. meibomiae and gene expression of the pathogen, and an overview of the sentinel plots and other monitoring efforts planned for this season.
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