Wheat Leaf Rust

Wheat leaf rust is a fungal disease that affects wheat, barley, rye stems, leaves and grains. In temperate zones it is destructive on winter wheat because the pathogen overwinters. Infections can lead up to 20% yield loss. The pathogen is a Puccinia rust fungus. It is the most prevalent of all the wheat rust diseases, occurring in most wheat-growing regions. It causes serious epidemics in North America, Mexico and South America and is a devastating seasonal disease in India.

A fungal disease (Puccinia triticina) that produces orange pustules on wheat leaves and is the most widely distributed of the wheat rusts, present in nearly every wheat growing region in the world.

Chemical control with triazole fungicides may be useful for control of infections up to ear emergence but is difficult to justify economically in attacks after this stage.

From the 20th century, breeding for resistance against disease proved to be as important for total wheat production as breeding for increase in yield.