What happened to soybean rust disease in 2009?
Where did it peter out in 2009? There was a long time between the initial finds in Louisiana (Jan. 14) and the first finds during the growing season in Arkansas (Aug. 10) and Mississippi (Aug. 6). Why? “I’m not quite sure,” says Mueller. “It probably has something to do with the levels of infection and how widespread the pathogen survived the winter.” “Although it was found early in Louisiana and it survived in some counties in Florida, the pathogen still has not survived overwinter at levels seen in South America. This likely has lengthened the time between overwintering finds and soybean rust finds during the season,” he says. The weather conditions were ideal in early August for disease development, and rust really took off. While it did not reach Iowa, it did spread to an unprecedented 575 counties including most (or all) of the counties in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia (see map). Soybean rust was found in 16 states, the furthest north being in Illinois. By
