A national research project that actively seeks out and advises on changes in cereal disease populations across the UK is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
The UK Cereal Pathogen Virulence Survey (UKCPVS) focuses on wheat yellow rust, and includes wheat brown rust and wheat and barley mildew, providing an early warning system to growers and plant breeders of new races of disease.
It was originally established at the National Institute of Agricultural Botany (NIAB) in Cambridge, which still manages it, but it is now funded by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA).
“The greatest change over the past 50 years has been the replacement of the UK population of yellow rust with the ‘Warrior’ population in 2011. The rust population is now so diverse that wheat varieties react in different ways than before,” said NIAB pathologist Sarah Holdgate.
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