Fusarium spp. In wheat grain in the Czech Republic analysed by PCR method

The frequency of occurrence of four Fusarium spp. on wheat in the Moravia region, Czech Republic, was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Grain samples were collected during 2003-2006 at grain purchase centres. The dominant species was F. graminearum, which was recorded in all samples of the first 3 years of the study and in 88% of them in 2006. The previously more frequent F. culmorum was detected in 100 % of the samples only in 2005; in the preceding two years the frequency of its detection was lower, 84% and 60%, and in 2006 it was detected in 55% of the samples. Fusarium avenaceum had a very low occurrence in the years 2003-2004, but in 2005 it was recorded in 100% of the samples. In 2006 it was the opposite - total absence of this species. A quite different situation was found in the occurrence of the fourth species - F. poae. In the years 2005 and 2006 it was only detected in 10%, resp. 2% of the samples, compared to markedly higher occurrences in the previous years. A comparison of the current weather development with the long-term mean at the Troubsko locality suggests that years with a relatively long, wet and cold start of the growing season and warmer end of vegetation (late May-July) will favour F. graminearum.