Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 76 Page 77 Page 78 Page 79 Page 80 Page 81 Page 82 Page 83 Page 84 Page 85 Page 86 Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 93 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96 Page 97 Page 98 Page 99 Page 100 Page 101 Page 102 Page 103 Page 104 Page 105 Page 106 Page 107 Page 108 Page 109 Page 110 Page 111 Page 112 Page 113 Page 114 Page 115 Page 116Disease Watch 36 www.seed.ab.ca | Advancing Seed in Alberta AS Alberta’s Agricultural Pest Act opens for consultation, many hope the current zero tolerance policy regarding Fusarium gramine- arum (Fg), which is well established in southern Alberta and spread- ing to central and northern Alberta, will be reconsidered. Many believe the policy is not only unrealistic, but that it also puts Alberta farmers at a competitive disadvantage. It is hoped the policy will be reviewed when the Agricultural Pests Act is again opened for consultation. Zero Tolerance Policy in Grain Seed Established In Alberta, F. graminearum is the most prevalent species of Fusarium, which is why it was declared a pest under the Alberta Agricultural Pests Act in 1999. Following its addition to the Act, the province of Alberta developed the Alberta Fusarium graminearum Management Plan, which came into effect on Oct. 1, 2002. The goal of the plan was to put control strategies into place until effective disease control measures for the pathogen are developed. The government of Alberta has stated planting diseased seed is one of the surest ways to introduce and establish the ZeroTolerancePolicy forFgUnpopular Many producers think the policy puts them at a competitive disadvantage. pathogen in the field, which is why one of the outcomes of the plan was the zero tolerance policy for F. graminearum in seed grain, including corn. How Prevalent is Fusarium in Alberta? Various surveys and yearly seed testing results indicate the situation surrounding Fusarium has changed since 2005 in southern Alberta and since 2012 in central Alberta. When the seed testing labs first began testing in 2001, it was difficult to find the pathogen in most areas of Alberta. Increasingly, F. graminearum is being found in other parts of Alberta, especially along the Saskatchewan border and along the Hwy. 16 corridor towards areas in and around Edmonton. “As Fg becomes more established on susceptible crop residues, there is an increasing risk of finding it more frequently in surveys and harvested grain,” says Kelly Turkington, plant pathologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada in Lacombe, Alta. “Unfortunately, the wheat-canola wheat-canola rotation that is typically followed, from a plant pathologist’s point of view, simply does not allow enough time for decomposition and