UN initiates wheat rust tracking campaign

A UN agency launched an information system on Wednesday (June 2) to help track the spread of the rust disease that wiped out almost 80% of Kenya's wheat crop in 2008.

FAO said it had put up a special website that will be updated to help track the advance of the Ug99 - a devastating strain of wheat stem rust disease and other wheat rusts - amid concern the fungus was spreading across Africa and could head towards South Asia.

Variants of the disease have now been recorded in Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

The website has been named 'Rust SPORE' and aims at delivering information on the status of wheat stem rust, monitor important new strains of the disease and provide access to reliable data on a global scale.

''Emergence of the Ug99 races in East Africa transformed stem rust from a disease largely under control into a significant global threat,'' said David Hodson, FAO's international focal point for wheat rust disease.

''Ug99 is like the flu virus, it evolves continuously. The continued spread of Ug99, and the appearance of new variants that have broken down even more key resistance genes is increasing the danger it poses.

According to the agency, information would be retrieved from field data provided by national surveillance teams in cooperating countries. It is aiming at forming an international monitoring network.