October 12, 2006

 

USDA: Asian soybean rust spreads to US state Kentucky

 

 

Asian soybean rust has been found in western Kentucky fields, marking the northernmost move for the disease so far in 2006, the US Department of Agriculture said Wednesday (Oct 11).

 

The windborne fungal disease was found in Christian, Hopkins, Todd, Caldwell, Lyon, Marshall, and Union counties in Kentucky, the USDA said on its public rust website.

 

"This find will have absolutely no impact on the 2006 soybean crop in Kentucky or anywhere else for that matter," according to a commentary posted on the website.

 

So far in 2006, the disease has been found in 112 counties across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and North Carolina, the USDA said.

 

"Soybean rust will 'go away' from Kentucky as soon as there is hard frost. It simply cannot survive this far north," said the commentary, written by University of Kentucky extension officials. However, they wrote that the finds were useful in predictive modelling studies of the plant disease.

 

The USDA also said the fungal disease had spread to new counties in three states that had previously reported finding the pathogen.

 

On Wednesday, the USDA said soybean rust was found on sentinel plots in Lee and Limestone counties in Alabama.

 

On Tuesday, two other discoveries of soybean rust--Santa Rosa County in Florida and St Martin Parish in Louisiana--were announced by the USDA.

 

The plant pathogen flourishes in warm, damp, overcast weather, causing premature defoliation of immature soybeans and sometimes major yield losses, unless immediately countered with chemical fungicides.