​​Status Update on Fusarium Wilt of Cotton Race 4 in Texas and New Mexico

December 2018 | 11 min., 19 sec.
by Thomas Isakeit
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Research

Summary

A potentially devastating race of Fusarium wilt of cotton, race 4 (FOV4), previously confined in North America to the San Joaquin Valley of California, was confirmed in the El Paso area in 2017. While it is too early to know whether it will continue to spread to other cotton production areas of the United States, this presentation will discuss what is known about it in far-west Texas. The disease is a serious threat because FOV4 is better adapted to causing disease of cotton than the other Fusarium wilt fungal races. It causes disease without the involvement of nematodes and has activity in soils over a broader pH range. This presentation will discuss how to recognize it and what can be done to manage it. At the very least, this presentation will raise awareness of this particular disease in the eastern cotton production community of the United States.​

About the Presenter

Thomas IsakeitThomas Isakeit is a professor and extension plant pathologist located at Texas A&M University in College Station. His responsibility is conducting extension programs managing field crop diseases, particularly corn, cotton and sorghum. With cotton, he has studied aflatoxin contamination and seedling diseases. Additionally, he identified and developed the fungicide, flutriafol, as an economical management approach for Phymatotrichopsis root rot of cotton. With corn, he conducted aflatoxin and fumonisin research in conjunction with Texas A&M corn breeders and also field studies evaluating commercially-available atoxigenic strains of Aspergillus flavus for managing aflatoxin. He has been with Texas A&M University since 1993. He obtained his PhD and MSc degrees in plant pathology at Michigan State University. He also obtained post-doctoral experience at the University of California – Berkeley and the University of Arizona.​

Contact Information:
Email: t-isakeit@tamu.edu

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