Soyabean rust continues to spread in the southern United States, with Alabama reporting its sixth case of the yield-cutting fungus in 2007, the US Agriculture Department said late on Thursday. Soya rust was found in Alabama's Mobile County, in the far south-western part of the state, on a sentinel plot located within a commercial soyabean field.
Ed Sikora, a plant pathologist at Auburn University, said the recent finding in Alabama, along with rust discoveries in two Florida Panhandle counties on Thursday, suggest "that soyabean fields located in the (south-eastern) corner of Alabama may be at risk."
The fungus, which can cut yields by up to 80 percent on untreated fields, has been largely found in the South this year. Still, it has shown signs of progressing north after it was detected in northern Oklahoma, just 60 miles (97 km) from the Kansas border. Overall, the United States has reported 76 counties with soyabean rust in eight states, compared with just over 30 counties in six states a year ago at this time.
In 2007, rust has now been reported in 25 counties in Texas, six counties in Alabama, four counties in Arkansas, 12 counties in Florida, five counties in Georgia, 14 parishes in Louisiana, five counties in Mississippi, and five counties in Oklahoma.
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