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Fusarium
head blight (FHB)
Take-all
of wheat
Barley
yellow dwarf virus (BYDV)
Light
leaf spot of oilseed rape
Phoma
leaf spot/stem canker of oilseed rape
FHB can cause substantial losses in yield and grain quality, particularly through mycotoxin contamination. Control of the disease is problematic due to the variable performances of fungicides and the need for precise timing. Click on the pictures for a more detailed, higher resolution picture.
Take-all can also cause substantial yield losses in the UK. Caused by a soil-borne fungus, the disease is characterised by the appearance of "patches". Affected plants show chlorosis and can even be killed by the disease. Click on the pictures for a more detailed, higher resolution picture.
Barley yellow dwarf virus on oats giving a characteristic red colouration to the leaves
Light leaf spot can cause yeld losses of up to 1.5 t/ha per annum, at an estimated cost of more than £30 million in the UK. This is despite expenditure of more than £5 million per annum on fungicide to control the disease. Initiated by wind-blown ascospores in the autumn (September/October), this polycyclic disease develops through subsequent infection caused by rain-splashed conidia which produces chrarcteristic patches of disease by spring (March/April). It is thought that a second sexual cyle takes place on decaying infected material, with mature apothecia releasing a second flush of ascospores. Developing pods are often infected, leading to premature ripening of seed pods and pod shatter. More information on light leaf spot can be found at the Light Leaf Spot Information Centre pages and an up-to-date risk forecast for this disease can be produced by visiting the "Light leaf spot forecast" website.
Stem canker can be a devastating disease of winter oilseed rape with yield losses estimated to be as high as 50% in epidemic years. Initial infections are caused by sexual ascospores of Leptosphaeria maculans which infect the young leaves of the recently emerged crop to form phoma leaf lesions. If this happens early in the season when the plants (and leaves) are small, the pathogen is able to grow systemically down the petiole to infect the stem. Later in the season, the infected stem develops into a large "canker", preventing water uptake of the plant. In severe cases, an infected plant may lodge or may be killed prior to harvest. Click here for more detailed information on this disease.
