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Poster # 112
Poster Title: Assessing Fusarium Head Blight Risk and Disease Impact: Comparative Analysis of On-Farm and Research Station Trials on FHB Index and DON
Authors: Olanrewaju Shittu 1, Tyler McFeaters 1, and Paul Esker 1.
1. Pennsylvania State University, Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology, State College, Pennsylvania.
Corresponding Author: Olanrewaju Shittu, oms5169@psu.edu
Presenting Author:   Olanrewaju Shittu



Fusarium Head Blight (FHB) is a kernel disease affecting winter wheat production in the Northeast United States. The causal agent, Fusarium gramineareum, reduces yield and produces deoxynivalenol (DON), which poses food safety risks. FHB is managed using an integrated disease management (IDM) approach, which includes moderately resistant varieties, rotating with non-host plants, monitoring disease risk, and applying fungicides only when predicted FHB risk is high.  Trials for FHB management are conducted with support of the U.S. Wheat & Barley Scab Initiative. Trials focus on testing wheat varieties with different levels of resistance and fungicides applied at flowering. These trials provide valuable data for quantifying the long-term effect of FHB. Locations are monitored for FHB risk using the Fusarium risk tool (https://www.wheatscab.psu.edu/). Translating results from coordinated trials is valuable, but improving the quantification of FHB risk at the field scale is important. Nonetheless, on-farm fungicide efficacy for FHB management is rarely documented, and the Fusarium risk tool is not validated.  Our field study aimed to compare fungicide efficacy in the management of FHB in small plot research trials with on-farm strip trials. We also aimed to validate the FHB risk tool at these locations in Pennsylvania. Trials were planted at two Penn State research farms (Russell E. Larson Agricultural Research Centre, Rock Springs (RS) and Southeast Agricultural Research and Extension Centre (SEAREC)) in October 2023 using susceptible wheat variety. Five on-farm trial locations were identified in the spring of 2024, and the cooperating farmers were provided with a fungicide of their choice. Farmer cooperators left a section of their field untreated during the fungicide application at early anthesis. Disease assessments were made for all trials at the soft-dough growth. At harvest, grain samples were obtained from treated and untreated plots and sent for DON analysis. Results indicated that FHB risk predictions were high at all locations during their respective flowering periods. Disease assessments indicated a high FHB-index (above 10%) at SEAREC (20.4%) and two on-farm locations (17.8% and 21.7%) in the untreated plots. In untreated samples, DON levels were greater than (or equal to) 1 ppm at SEAREC (3.2 ppm) and three on-farm sites (1.0, 3.2, 4.0 ppm). Fungicides significantly reduced FHB index and DON levels compared to the untreated checks at all locations except RS. These results indicate deviations from the predicted FHB risk at some locations, and the fungicides effectively controlled the FHB and DON at all locations.