b"BACTERIAL LEAF STREAKA barley plant infected with bacterial leaf streak at the screening nursery for barley at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lacombe in late July 2023. PHOTO: KELLY TURKINGTONBacterialCEREAL CROPS INAlberta are hiding an emerging threatbacterial leaf streak (BLS). While the bacterial disease has been around for decades, increasing awareness and seed tests are showing Bandits higher incidences of BLS in Alberta cereal fields. Up until about five years ago, it was really uncommon on the Canadian Prairies. We would see it from time to time, not at economic levels, but more of a curiosity. In the last five years, it's become more common and more destructive, Mike Harding, plant pathologist with Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation, says in a phone interview. With seed tests now available andBLS is caused by a bacterium called Xanthomonas. There are awareness on the rise, bacterial leafdifferent bacterial pathogens strains which can infect plants. Early stages of infection include necrosis on plants appearing as water-streak is a growing problem in Alberta. soaked lesions that look as if a leaf has been pressed on too hard between fingers with watery spots then appearing, Kim Kenward, research and development manager with 20/20 Seed Labs, explains during a Zoom interview. As the disease progresses, the lesions coalesce forming yellow and brown streaks.It's a bacterial disease which affects the leaf tissue of the plant. So it destroys photosynthetic leaf area. And then it also moves up onto the head, resulting in head and grain infections. There could be an effect in terms of discolouration, which may affect grade and so on, Kelly Turkington, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Lacombe, says in a phone interview.BLS can impact a plant at all phases of its lifetimethe earlier it latches onto the plant the more impact it will have on yield. Yields can be reduced by as much as 50 per cent. The bacterium needs water to survive, meaning the more moisture it gets during its lifetime on the plant can worsen symptoms. 14seed.ab.ca"