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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 59(9)

Finding Wheat streak mosaic virus in south-west Australia

B. A. Coutts A , N. E. B. Hammond A , M. A. Kehoe A and R. A. C. Jones A B C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Agricultural Research Western Australia, Locked Bag No. 4, Bentley Delivery Centre, WA 6983, Australia.

B School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.

C Corresponding author. Email: rjones@agric.wa.gov.au

Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 59(9) 836-843 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR08034
Submitted: 23 January 2008  Accepted: 12 May 2008   Published: 26 August 2008

Abstract

Between 2003 and summer 2006, 33 659 samples of wheat and grasses were collected from diverse locations in south-west Australia and tested for presence of Wheat streak mosaic virus (WSMV), but none was detected. In April–early May 2006, 2840 random samples of volunteer wheat from 28 fields on 24 farms in 6 districts in the grainbelt were tested. WSMV was detected for the first time, the infected samples coming from three fields, one in the Hyden and two in the Esperance districts. In ‘follow-up’ surveys in May 2006 in the same two districts, 8983 samples of volunteer wheat or grasses were tested, and the virus was detected on further farms, two in the Hyden and four in the Esperance districts. Incidences of infection in volunteer wheat were 1–8%, but WSMV was not found in grasses. By September 2006, when 1769 samples from further visits were tested, WSMV was detected in wheat crops or volunteer wheat plants at 2/3 of the original farms, with infection also found at one of them in barley, volunteer oats, and barley grass (Hordeum sp.). When samples of the seed stocks originally used in 2005 to plant five of the fields containing infected volunteer wheat at the three original infected farms were tested, seed transmission of WSMV was detected in four of them (0.1–0.2% transmission rates). In August–October 2006, 16 436 samples were collected in a growing-season survey for WSMV in wheat trials and crops throughout the grainbelt. WSMV was detected in 33% of ‘variety’ trials, 18% of other trials, 13% of seed ‘increase’ crops, and 52% of commercial crops. Incidences of infection were <1–100% within individual crops, <1–17% in trials, and <1–3% in seed increase crops. WSMV-infected sites were concentrated in the low-rainfall zone (east) of the central grainbelt. This area received considerable summer rains in 2006, which allowed growth of a substantial ‘green ramp’ of volunteer cereals and grasses, favouring infection of subsequent wheat plantings. WSMV was also detected at low levels over a much wider area involving all rainfall zones, from Dongara in the north to Esperance in the south. All 26 122 samples collected in January–May 2006 and 515 with possible WSMV symptoms collected in August–October 2006 were also tested for High plains virus (HPV), but it was not detected.

Additional keywords: WSMV, wheat, surveys, incursion, grainbelt, detection, distribution, incidence, volunteer plants, losses.


Acknowledgments

We thank Tracey Smith and other members of the plant virus team for help in testing samples by ELISA, and Belinda Cox for the RT-PCR tests. Satendra Kumar, Robert Loughman, and William MacLeod helped organise the biosecurity, autumn volunteer wheat, and growing-season surveys, respectively. DAFWA Biosecurity, Cereal Breeding, Plant Pathology, and Regional Extension Staff, Landmark and Elders agricultural consultants, William Frost, and farmers all helped with sample collection. The Grains Research and Development Corporation provided financial support.


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