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Penn State Soybean Rust Satellite Downlink - February 2005

February 22, 2005

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA - A videoconference workshop will focus on early detection and treatment of a newly detected disease that has the potential to cause serious losses to the nation's soybean crop.

A soybean rust videoconference, hosted by Erick DeWolf, assistant professor of plant pathology at Penn State, and other researchers, will be downlinked at various Penn State Cooperative Extension office across the state March 17, 7-9 p.m.

Soybean rust is a fungal disease that could cause large crop and economic losses to soybean growers because of decreases in yield and/or increased fungicide application costs. Scientists have been tracking the spread of the rust as it made its way from Africa to Brazil and then northward across the Caribbean Sea.

One year before soybean rust was first discovered in Louisiana last November, the first confirmed sighting in the U.S., researchers at Penn State started working collaboratively with other agencies and the private sector to determine the potential movement of the disease and what effects it would have on soybean growers. According to Scott Isard, professor of aerobiology at Penn State, soybean rust originated in Asia over a century ago and has slowly spread to India, Africa and South America.

Recently, it was confirmed in nine southern states. "Symptoms of the disease include tan or brown lesions on the foliage of the plant, particularly on the underside of leaves. In addition to soybeans, the rust can infect about 100 other species, including sweet peas, green beans, yellow sweet clover and kudzu," says Isard.

According to DeWolf, most producers and crop advisors in Pennsylvania are aware of the disease's potential. "However, questions still remain regarding estimated crop and economic losses, details on controlling soybean rust, and how we will know if the disease is in our fields," says DeWolf. He will host the workshop along with other renowned soybean rust researchers, including several researchers that have just returned from South America, where soybean rust is causing devastating losses.

In addition, the videoconference will feature an update on the status of soybean rust in the Southern states, presentation of monitoring networks and disease forecasts at state and national levels, as well as detailed information about fungicides and application technology.

The videoconference will be available by satellite downlink at county offices throughout PA including Beaver, Cumberland, Erie, Franklin, Huntingdon, Indiana, Lancaster, Lawrence, Mercer, Schuylkill, Tioga, Westmoreland, and York. Space is limited, so please contact the county office to pre-register. Attendees can call in, email or fax their questions during the conference. In Lebanon County, a tape of the workshop will be rebroadcast on March 18th, 1-3 p.m.

For information on downlinking this program, contact Lori Yearick, Information and Communication Technologies, Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, (814) 865-6309.

For more information on soybean rust management for corn and soybean crops, see Penn State's Web site at http://cornandsoybeans.psu.edu/. For more information on soybean rust, see Web site https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/ariatti/www/SBR/index.htm. To find out more about the economic impacts of soybean rust, download USDA's report at http://www.ers.usda.gov/publications/ocs/Apr04/OCS04D02/.

The Pennsylvania IPM program is a collaboration between the Pennsylvania State University and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture aimed at promoting integrated pest management in both agricultural and nonagricultural situations. For more information, contact the program at (814) 865-2839, or Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/. To view our archived news releases, see Web site http://paipm.cas.psu.edu/10.htm.