EFSA Journal (Jun 2022)

Pest categorisation of Fusarium pseudograminearum

  • EFSA Panel on Plant Health (PLH),
  • Claude Bragard,
  • Paula Baptista,
  • Elisavet Chatzivassiliou,
  • Francesco Di Serio,
  • Paolo Gonthier,
  • Josep Anton Jaques Miret,
  • Annemarie Fejer Justesen,
  • Alan MacLeod,
  • Christer Sven Magnusson,
  • Panagiotis Milonas,
  • Juan A Navas‐Cortes,
  • Stephen Parnell,
  • Roel Potting,
  • Emilio Stefani,
  • Hans‐Hermann Thulke,
  • Wopke Van der Werf,
  • Antonio Vicent Civera,
  • Jonathan Yuen,
  • Lucia Zappalà,
  • Quirico Migheli,
  • Irene Vloutoglou,
  • Ewelina Czwienczek,
  • Andrea Maiorano,
  • Franz Streissl,
  • Philippe Lucien Reignault

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2903/j.efsa.2022.7399
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 20, no. 6
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

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Abstract The EFSA Plant Health Panel performed a pest categorisation of Fusarium pseudograminearum O'Donnell & T. Aoki. F. pseudograminearum is a soil‐borne fungal pathogen, able to cause a disease known as Fusarium crown rot (FCR, also known as foot and root rot) and occasionally Fusarium head blight on small grain cereals, particularly Triticum aestivum L., Triticum turgidum L. spp. durum (Dest.), Hordeum vulgare L. and triticale (xTriticosecale). In addition, F. pseudograminearum has been isolated from soybean (Glycine max L.) and from some grass genera, such as Phalaris, Agropyron and Bromus, which represent potentially important inoculum reservoirs. This pathogen has been reported in arid and semi‐arid cropping regions in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, northern Africa and South Africa, the Middle East and Asia. In the EU, it has been reported in Italy since 1994 and later in Spain on field‐grown durum wheat, but uncertainty remains regarding the actual distribution of the pathogen in the EU. The pathogen is not included in the EU Commission Implementing Regulation 2019/2072. Seeds of host plants and soil and other substrates are the main pathways for the entry and spread of the pathogen into the EU. There are no reports of interceptions of F. pseudograminearum in the EU. Host availability and climate suitability occurring in the EU favour establishment of the pathogen and allow it to establish in areas from which it has not been reported. Phytosanitary measures are available to prevent the introduction of the pathogen into the EU, and additional measures are available to mitigate the risk of spread. In the non‐EU areas of its present distribution, the pathogen has a direct impact on cultivated hosts (e.g. wheat, barley, triticale and soybean) that are also relevant for the EU. However, no crop losses have been reported so far in the EU. The Panel concludes that F. pseudograminearum satisfies all the criteria to be regarded as a potential Union quarantine pest.

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