by Whitney Flach INTERVIEW: ISU Plant Pathologist Alison Robertson
Iowa State University Extension has been working with the USDA, Iowa Department of Agriculture, the Iowa Crop Improvement Association have been surveying several counties in the state in their discovery of Bacterial leaf streak (BLS). This has recently been found on field corn, seed corn, popcorn and sweet corn in Iowa. The disease was confirmed in six counties Hancock, Webster, Grundy, Marshall, Tama, and Buchanan.
Symptoms include long, narrow lesions that are tan, brown, or orange and occur between the veins of the corn leaves that are less than 1 inch to several inches long. Bacterial leaf streak lesions look similar to gray leaf spot (GLS) except they have wavy margins while GLS lesions have straight sides that look more rectangular.
The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, released a statement on the disease, “This plant disease presents no health risks to people or animals, and there is no evidence of adverse impact on corn yield or quality.”
