First spotted in the United States in 2014, bacterial leaf streak of corn is an emerging disease of corn that has now spread to ten states, including the top three corn-producing states of Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska.
“I can remember vividly walking into multiple corn fields in western Nebraska with an extension agent in the summer of 2016. Bacterial leaf streak could be seen in almost every field, and in several of these fields greater than 80% of plants were infected,” said Kirk Broders, a plant pathologist at Colorado State University. “The scale and potential severity of this disease were evident, and it was clear to all involved that day we needed to respond quickly.”
While bacterial leaf streak of corn has been a known threat in South Africa for over 70 years, it is very new to both North and South America.
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