Released: June 06, 2001

Kansas Farmers Urged to Guard Against Karnal Bunt

MANHATTAN, Kan. - With the Kansas wheat harvest literally days away in southern portions of the state, growers are being advised to query custom cutters who may have recently cut wheat in Texas because of a recent discovery of Karnal bunt disease there.

Karnal bunt, which poses no threat to human or animal health but does impart an unpleasant odor to grain, has been found in two Texas counties - Throckmorton and Young - according to the Kansas Department of Agriculture.

The disease has never been detected in Kansas.

"Growers need to be very careful about the equipment they let into their fields, so the disease isn’t accidentally spread into Kansas," said Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Jamie Clover Adams, in a statement.

Karnal bunt is a disease that infects wheat, and is caused by the fungus Tilletia indica.

"Ask the harvest crew where they have been," Adams said. "If they have been in an area known to have Karnal bunt, find out if the equipment has been properly cleaned and if the operator has a certificate issued by USDA to prove it."

The KDA also advised growers who use portable seed cleaners to follow the same recommendations, and ask where the equipment had been and if it had been cleaned.

"From the plant pathology standpoint, it’s a fairly minor disease," said Kansas State University plant pathologist Bill Bockus. Yield losses from Karnal bunt are usually minimal and studies have shown that infected grain poses no health risk to humans or animals.

"The main problem is that many of the countries we export to require certification stating that the wheat being sold is from a region free of Karnal bunt," added Bockus, a specialist in soilborne fungal wheat disease with K-State Research and Extension. If the disease should move into Kansas, that certification would not be possible and the economic impact would potentially be tremendous.

About half of the wheat grown in Kansas is exported.

Currently, approximately 80 countries restrict the import of U.S. wheat grown in areas where the disease is found, the KDA said.

"Kansas consistently has been the nation’s leading wheat producer," Adams said, "so we certainly don’t want to compromise our state’s wheat industry, or our ability to export."

"We’ve never seen Karnal bunt in Kansas. We’ve never even seen it in Oklahoma," said David Frey, Administrator of the Kansas Wheat Commission. "The U.S. government has a system of regulation and control of Karnal bunt that has been accepted internationally for at least four years. We may be the only country in the world that looks for Karnal bunt and makes our findings public. However, it is not just a government responsibility. In order for U.S. regulations and controls to continue to be successful, wheat producers and grain handlers need to be vigilant and keep their senses sharp about Karnal bunt."

The disease was first detected in the United States in 1996, when it surfaced in durum wheat in Arizona. It was thought to have come in from Mexico. Subsequently, infected seed lots were discovered in two southern California counties adjacent to Arizona.

In 1997, it was found in some Texas counties. The USDA established a quarantine on the infected areas, and no new outbreaks were reported until May 31, 2001, when the disease was found in northern Texas in wheat that had been harvested in Throckmorton County and moved to Young County.

The USDA most recently estimated the 2001 Kansas wheat crop at 286 million bushels, down from 348 million a year earlier, due largely to drought conditions last fall and extremely cold winter weather.

A national survey will be conducted by the USDA this year to ensure that wheat from disease-free areas can continue to be exported, the KDA said.

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Mary Lou Peter, Communications Specialist
mlpeter@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News