2023 Provincial Disease Update

The following information was part of the 2023 Provincial Disease Update presentation given by Dr. Alireza Akhavan (Provincial Plant Disease Specialist) on March 2nd, 2023.

Terminology

Prevalence: The total number of cases of a disease in a given population at a specific time. For example, If there were 100 fields sampled and a disease was found in 70 of them, the prevalence is 70%.

Incidence: The number or proportion of diseased plants in a population. For example, if there were 25 plants sampled and 5 were found to have disease, the incidence is 20%.

Severity: How impacted the plant is by the disease, measured on a specified scale. For example, in the pea surveys the scale was 1-7, with one being healthy.

Canola Diseases

Sclerotinia Stem Rot 

  • Prevalence: 56% of crops surveyed had at least trace levels of sclerotinia.
  • Incidence: 6% averaged across all fields with 0.18 severity.
  • Incidence: 11% average across infected fields with 0.32 severity.

Blackleg

  • Prevalence: 73% of crops surveyed had at least trace levels of blackleg.
  • Incidence: 11% average across all fields with 0.16 severity.
  • Incidence: 15% average across infected fields with 0.22 severity.

Aster Yellows

  • Present in 26% of fields surveyed.

Alternaria Black Spot

  • Present in 51% of fields surveyed.

Verticillium Stripe

  • Not found in the general canola disease survey.
  • In a targeted verticillium survey, 16 out of 25 fields were found with suspect samples (they’re currently being confirmed at U of M).
    • Prevalence: 64%
    • Incidence: 9.7%

Clubroot

  • 6 new fields confirmed for clubroot.
  • Over 521 fields were part of the clubroot monitoring program province wide.
Lentil Diseases

Anthracnose

  • Present in 78% of lentil crops with an average incidence of 26%.

Sclerotinia

  • Present in 11% of fields with an average incidence of 0.8%.

Root Rot Complex

  • Present in 65% of fields.

Aschochyta Blight

  • Present in 5% of fields with an average incidence of 0.1%.
Field Pea Diseases

Mycosphaerella / Aschochyta Complex

  • Present in 100% of fields surveyed.
  • Incidence: 60%
  • Severity: 1.8 / 7 (one is healthy)

Bacterial Blight

  • Present in 41% of fields.
  • Incidence: 17%

Root Rot Complex

  • Present in 95% of surveyed fields.
  • Incidence: 60%
  • Severity: 2.3 / 7
Cereal Diseases

Fusarium Head Blight

151 samples taken

  • 72% of barley, 73% of wheat, and 82% of durum samples had at least one suspected fusarium damaged kernel.