SPORE TRAP DETECTION OF SUGARCANE SMUT: 12 MONTHS EXPERIENCE AND OUTCOMES

SUGARCANE SMUT was first detected in Queensland in the Childers-Bundaberg region in June 2006. Crop inspections revealed over 70 farms were smutinfested by November 2006. With the disease found in the Mackay and Herbert districts by the end of 2006, the likelihood of smut infestations in other apparently un-infested areas became much more likely. Burkard spore traps were purchased to assist in detecting smut in these districts. Initial trials involved placing the traps close to infested crops and assaying spore capture using a light microscope but light microscopy proved time consuming and costly from a time perspective. A molecular assay was developed to speed the process and although not providing a quantitative assay result, it still provided a qualitative assessment of the presence of smut. Spore trapping was undertaken in a number of crops in many of the un-infested cropping areas in Queensland and New South Wales. Smut-positive assay results for U. scitaminea spores were recorded in the Mossman, Burdekin, Proserpine and Maryborough areas. High intensity trapping at some of these sites showed that U. scitaminea spores were common and that the disease is very likely to be infesting crops in at least some of these locations. Smut whips were seen for the first time in the Maryborough area on 22 November 2007.