Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
pathogens are absent, or which, because of climatic conditions, are conducive to
healthy seed multiplication.
For high value seed, cost effective laboratory tests will be required that are
sufficiently sensitive to detect very low levels of damaging pathogens. The well
established incubation tests used in domestic testing programmes are increasingly
being replaced by immunoassays using standard, internationally accepted antibodies
or by tests based on nucleic acid technology which offer rapid identification of seed
lots with low levels of infection. Tests based on PCR technology are now available
for the routine detection of a number of seedborne pathogens (Cockerell
et al
.
,
2001;
Kenyon
et al.,
2001; Cockerell
et al.,
2004).
Tests for seedborne pathogens will increasingly be made 'in-house' by the
producer, using methods validated and approved by the International Seed Testing
Association (Meijerink, 1997). As seed testing technology develops it may be
possible for seed merchants, or even growers who aim to save their own seed, to use
diagnostic tests in kit form, perhaps on seed taken directly from the combine, to
determine whether it meets acceptable health standards and as a guide to which seed
treatment to use, if any (Paveley
et al
.
,
1996). A recent development in the UK has
been the move away from routine chemical treatment of all cereal seed lots towards
a system of treating infected seed lots according to need and directing treatment at
specific disease problems (Cockerell
et al
.
,
2004). This change has largely been
driven by the need to reduce inputs to maintain profitability, and an accompanying
increase in the use of farm-saved seed, but it has been facilitated by a better
understanding of seedborne disease epidemiology and the increased availability of
rapid, reliable test methods. This has shown that a significant proportion of UK
cereal seed could safely be sown without treatment, resulting in potential annual
savings to growers of up to £8 million. However, in order to avoid disease build-up
during seed multiplication, seed to be sown for further seed production should be
treated routinely.
REFERENCES
Anon. (1985)
The Cereal Seeds Regulations 1985
, Statutory Instruments 1985 No. 976, Her Majesty's
Stationery Office, London.
Anon. (1994)
Mind Your Peas
, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Cambridge. Ball, S. and
Reeves, J.C. (1992) Application of rapid techniques to seed health testing - prospects and potential,
in Techniques for the Rapid Detection of Plant Pathogens, (eds J.M. Duncan and L. Torrance),
Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford, pp. 193-207.
Biddle, A.J. (1994
) Seed treatment usage on peas and beans in the UK
. BCPC Monograph No. 57. Seed
Treatment: Progress and Prospects. British Crop Protection Council, Farnham, UK, 143-149.
Bond, D.A. and Pope, M. (1980)
Ascochyta fabae
on winter beans
Vicia faba
: pathogen spread and
variation in host import resistance.
Plant Pathology
,
29
, 59-65.
Broadbent, L. (1951) Lettuce mosaic in the field.
Agriculture
,
57
, 578-582.
Cockerell, V. and Rennie, W.J. (1996) Survey of seed-borne pathogens in certified and farm-saved seed
in Britain between 1992 and 1994.
Home-Grown Cereals Authority Project Report No. 124
, Home-
Grown Cereals Authority, London.
Cockerell, V., Mulholland, V., McEwan, M.M.
et al
. (2001) Seed treatment according to need in winter
wheat. BCPC Symposium Proceedings No. 76.
Seed Treatment:Challenges and Opportunities
.
British Crop Protection Council, Farnham, UK, 111-116.
