VIRAL DISEASES ON CEREALS IN CENTRAL HUNGARY

In recent years viral diseases have become more frequent on cereals in Hungary. In the breeding nursery of the Martonvasar Institute, which contains stocks with very diverse genetic backgrounds, wheat suffered major attacks by viruses in 1972, 1976, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1986, 1990, 1996 and 1998. The winter barley plots incurred great damage in 1989 and 1990, while a large proportion of the durum wheat was destroyed in 1996. In 1982 barley yellow dwarf virus caused an epidemic in Fejer County and on many farms the damage was so great that the fields had to be ploughed up. The following nine viruses, which impose a threat to cereals, have been identified in Hungary to date: 1966: barley yellow dwarf luteovirus (BYDV), 1984: barley stripe mosaic hordeivirus (BSMV), 1985: wheat streak mosaic tritimovirus (WSMV), 1986: brome mosaic bromovirus (BMV), cocksfoot mottle sobemovirus (CfMV), 1988: wheat dwarf mastrevirus (WDV), 1989: barley yellow mosaic bymovirus (BYMV), 1990: agropyron mosaic rymovirus (AgMV) and ry...