A new feature will be efforts to expand monitoring beyond RustWatch’s current case study regions. These regions currently concern Navarra in Spain, the Italian island of Sicily, the Cambridge area in the UK and Brandenburg in Germany plus Switzerland and Denmark.

RustWatch explains the target of the campaign: “To establish the status of mainly yellow rust in common wheat, durum wheat and triticale from November 2022 to June 2023. It is important also to upload ‘no disease’ as the objective of the campaign is to monitor the status of the wheat rusts and which cultivars are affected and which are not.”

Participants are expected to download the app (user manuals are available in English, French, German and Italian) and provide the cultivar name, whether or not wheat rust is observed and one or more photos. Optionally, participants can provide growth stage and incidence details as well.

The project says that if participants find unusual attacks or attacks on a cultivar supposed to be very resistant, then they should contact their adviser or consultant, who can decide whether a sample should be sent to a RustWatch or national lab for further analysis. Advice is also available from RustWatch case study regional contacts.

“Our goal is to have genotype results ready before the end of May,” adds RustWatch. “These results will be a part of an early warning message on the RustWatch website and Twitter. The same alert will be issued via regional  Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems websites in local language.”

For more information:

• Read more about RustWatch here
• Find out how to participate here