Integrated disease management: Basic concept

Back ground information

Disease : Any physiological abnormalities inflicted in the plant by biotic and abioitc factors are
called disease. A disease plant produced different kind of symptoms that can be easily
distinguish form the healthy one. Disease affect the fitness of the plant that growth and
reproduction. In crop plant it reduces the yield and quality.
Who create the disease: A pathogen: so all those organisms create disease is called as
pathogen.
Knowledge about the pathogen biology and behavior is essential for its management. Pathogens
have been classified based on their morphology, function, and genomic data as fungi,
bacteria,virus, viroid, phytoplasm, nematoad, protozoa and flowering plants.
How pathogen create the disease:
1: by taking photosynthales from the plants Host Environment
2: By colonizing the plant tissue and create abnormalties mtn
3: Inducing necrosis by killing the chloroplast
4: Killing the plant organ
5: creating sterility
Pathogen
6: Producing toxin

Essential input for the disease development: Out of these three if anyone is absent there will
not be disease. However, we have very little control over environment and growing host is
essential. Therefore the major options are available only to the pathogen. Pathogen may be
effective or non effective and only effective pathogen has ability to create the disease is called
inoculum. Thus all the possible choice of disease management is the inoculums management.
Therefore a relation between inoculum and disease is essential.

Relationship between disease and its component influencing it

Disease= Host + pathogen + Environment
D= H+P + E ( Under natural environment)
This equation clearly state that if out of these three components if any things will be zero it will
produce zero disease

(a) D= H+P + E, (b), 0= 0+P + E, (c) 0= H+0 + E, (d) 0= D= H+P + 0 Now it become
clear that if any of these three components be absent disease will be zero. Our objective
to bring the disease zero by manipulating these three components.
The above equation clearly demonstrated that out of the three components pathogen is
undesired and its has be excluded, eradicated or controlled.
Since the relation between inoculums is directly proportional
I ∝ D ( I inoculums and D is disease)
If host is sufficient an environmental conditions are favorable then

The relation between inoculums and disease is linear and every unit increase in Inoculum
corresponding unit of disease will also increase until limiting factors operate.
 Inoculaum Disease severity 120
100
0 0
80 Inoculaum
1 0.5
60
10 5
40 Disease
20 10 severity
20
50 25
0
75 37.5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
100 50

Above table indicates a linear relation between inoculum and the disease. It is clear that disease
is dependent variable and pathogen is independent. The correlation coefficient between
inoculums and disease will be positive. Thus all the principle of disease management moves
around the inoculums. Therefore efforts are made to bring inoculums level 0 or near to zero so
that disease severity could be reduced and losses can be minimized.

Type of inoculums:
Primary inoculums: This inoculums initiate primary infection. Mostly it is available after over
wintering or over summring with the seeds, crop residue, soil or collateral or alternate
host.Quntity of primary inoculums is always very less.
Secondray inoculums are those comes after multiplication of primary inoculums and
responsible for the outbreak of disease. Quantity of secondary inoculums is very high.
Management practices applied in the disease management is most effective when primary
inoculum is targeted.
Relation between the inoculums and management practices:
It is negative but linear relation at different time interval inoculums decrease disease also
decrease.

15
Disease
10 10

5
Disease
0 1 0.1 0.01
1000 100 10 1

Since, inoculum multiply, moved and under favorable conditions can create the disease.
Therefore, a relation between inoculums and host is necessary to understand the level disease
and its migration by active and passive agents.

Estimation of inoculums: Estimation of inoculums is for new infection is essential for

integration of important components of IDM. Direct estimation of inocumum in most of the
cases is not possible. However, in case of soil borne plant pathogen they can be estimated based
in the previous year disease severity and survival behavior of the pathogen.
In case of air borne pathogens frequency of spore trapped also prove the amount of inoculums.
In case of seed borne plant pathogen examining the % infected seeds also provide the good
estimate of inoculums as well as movement of the pathogen.
Since there is direct relation between Inoculum and disease therefore measuring disease severity
or the area under disease progress curve provide good estimate of inoculums.

Concept of IDM

Concept of integrated disease management is similar to the insect pest management. Where
efforts are made to include all the non chemical methods contributing significantly in the
disease management. In the IDM chemical management will use only when it is warranted.
Chemicals used in the disease management have several ecological problems adding to the cost
decreasing the benefit. The long term use of chemical fungicides and others create selection
pressure on the pathogen population and due course of time pathogen developed resistance to
particular fungicide. Thus the use of fungicide becomes ineffective. There are several report s of
fungicide resistance in the pathogen population. Chemicals are effective as long as the sensitive
population dominant thus after selection of resistance population there would be shift in the
population structure.

IDM to cover the maximum economic loss by the pest and pathogen. Therefore the operation
level of IDM will be
Cost : Benefit (C: B ) ration should be =1 >1 mean we are investing 1 Rs the return
should be 1 Rs or more if it is <1 management practices will not be profitable

All the components of IDM expected to bring greater profit and long term sustainable

Host based IDM components

A host may be Resistance or susceptible.
The amount of resistance in a host is inversely proportion to the inoculums
R 1/I Or it can be also written as S ∝ I
(R= Resistance , S= Susceptibility)
R 1/S
Function of resistance is to reduce the growth and reproduction of the pathogen that finally
reduce the inoculums. Resistance decrease susceptibility increase.

Disease scape: Early maturing / Late sown cultivar

Good for crop rotation, intercropping etc.this is needed in mostly cereal and legume based
cropping system of arid and semiarid region.

Host resistance with high yield is 1st Component of IDM

Therefore the identification of IDM component those who can significantly contribute to C:B
ration is likely to integrated

Identification of IDM components

Host : Resistant/ Susceptible, role of non host,
Environment: Favorable/ unfavorable, off season crop,
Pathogen: Virulent/ avirulent, sensitive to fungicide/ non sensitive, inoclulum move by seed, by
soil, water, air. Inoculum survie on crop residue in the soil.

Merit of the different components to be integrated in the IDM ?

1: All the component contribute significantly in the reduction of disease
2; Compatible to other pest management components
3: It has to be cost effective
3: Acceptable to the farming community

Pathogen based components

1:Population must be responsive to various Cultural, chemical and biological practices
2: Chances for the development resistance to multiple stress should be minimum
3: Exclusion and eradication is related to pathogen components Removal of collateral host
harboring the pest and pathogen

Environment :
This is concerned the operational area where IPD module is likely to be implemented
Create the environment that is favorable for the crop and unfavorable to the pathogen
Most of the cultural practices and agronomic manipulation is based on the changes in the micro
environment.
1: Line sowing
2: Bed planting
3: quick decomposition of crop residue to preceding crop
4: Mixed/ intercropping
5: Scheduling irrigation
6: Pruning and training

How to select the significant components in IPM

Multiple linear regression (MLR) is a statistical technique that uses several explanatory
variables to predict the outcome of a response variable. The goal of multiple linear
regression (MLR) is to model the relationship between the explanatory and response variables.

Linear Regression: Y = a + bX + u
Multiple Regression: Y = a + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 + ... + btXt + u
Where:
Y = the variable that you are trying to predict (dependent variable)
X = the variable that you are using to predict Y (independent variable)
a = the intercept
b = the slope
u = the regression residual
Regression takes a group of random variables, thought to be predicting Y, and tries to find a
mathematical relationship between them. This relationship is typically in the form of a straight
line (linear regression) that best approximates all the individual data points. In multiple
regression, the separate variables are differentiated by using numbers with subscript.

Assumptions: The multiple regression model is based on the following assumptions:

1. Linearity: The mean E[y] of the dependent variable y can be expressed as a linear
combination of the independent variables x1, …, xk.
2. Independence: Observations yi are selected independently and randomly from the
population
3. Normality: Observations yi are normally distributed
4. Homogeneity of variances: Observations yi have the same variance

The regression coefficient should significantly increase after adding the individual components

EXCLUSION
This principle is defined as any measure that prevents the introduction of a disease-causing
agent (pathogen) into a region, farm, or planting. The basic strategy assumes that most
pathogens can travel only short distances without the aid of some other agent such as humans or
other vector, and that natural barriers like oceans, deserts, and mountains create obstacles to
their natural spread. In many cases pathogens are moved with their host plants or even on
nonhost material such as soil, packing material or shipping containers. Unfortunately, exclusion
measures usually only delay the entry of a pathogen, although exclusion may provide time to
plan how to manage the pathogen when it ultimately arrives. Karnal bunt (caused by Tilletia
indica) of wheat is an example of a pathogen originally from India that was anticipated.
Measures were established to prevent its introduction, but it finally found its way into the
United States. Soybean rust (caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi) has been found recently in the
southeastern U.S. and precautions have been undertaken to prevent further spread.
Recently the wide spread of wheat blast caused by Magnoprothe tritici in Bangladesh and wheat
growing area of West Bengal is brodering to it is likely to introduce the wheat Blast in India.
Timely action may help to contain the disease for its further spread.
ERADICATION
This principle aims at eliminating a pathogen after it is introduced into an area but before it has
become well established or widely spread. It can be applied to individual plants, seed lots, fields
or regions but generally is not effective over large geographic areas. Two large attempts at
pathogen eradication in the United States were the golden nematode (Globodera rostochiensis)
program on Long Island, New York and the citrus canker (caused by Xanthomonas
axonopodis pv. citri and pv. aurantifolii) program in Florida. However, neither of these
attempts was a lasting success.
Eradication of the golden nematode involved removing infested soil, fumigating soil in infested
fields and eventually abandoning infested potato fields for housing developments and other
uses. Citrus canker eradication involved widespread removal and burning of diseased trees and,
in some cases, destruction of entire citrus groves and nurseries (Figure 3). The disease appeared
to be contained and the pathogen eradicated, but the disease has reappeared and new attempts at
eradication are ongoing.

Eradication can also be on a more modest scale such as the removal of apple or pear branches
infected by the fire blight bacterium (Erwinia amylovora) or pruning to remove blister rust
cankers (caused by Cronartium ribicola) on white pine branches. Or, it can be the sorting and
removal of diseased flower bulbs, corms or rhizomes. Hot water seed-treatment of cereal seeds
to kill smut mycelium in the seed and heat treatment to eliminate viruses from fruit tree
budwood for grafting are other examples of pathogen eradication.
Two programs that are actually forms of protection and not pathogen eradication are barberry
eradication for reducing stem rust (caused by Puccinia graminis) of wheat
and Ribes eradication for preventing white pine blister rust. The strategy is that removing these
alternate hosts breaks the disease cycles and prevents infection of the economically more
valuable host. These two examples are mentioned here because they are frequently cited as
eradication measures. However, stem rust can readily spread from wheat to wheat in many
regions by the uredinial stage although elimination of the aecial host, barberry, may deter or
diminish the development of pathogenic races of the rust. The white pine blister rust fungus is
perennial in the pine host and eradication of the alternate host only protects noninfected trees
but does not necessarily eliminate the pathogen from the area.
Eradication may also be accomplished by destroying weeds that are reservoirs of various
pathogens or their insect vectors (Figure 4). Elimination of potato cull piles (Figure 5) is an
effective method of eradicating overwintering inoculum of the late blight pathogen.
of susceptible crops, which may include susceptible weed hosts such as grasses in the case of
take-all. (See Take-all disease lesson and Soybean cyst nematode disease lesson)

PROTECTION
This principle depends on establishing a barrier between the pathogen and the host plant or the
susceptible part of the host plant. It is usually thought of as a chemical barrier, e.g., a fungicide,
bactericide or nematicide, but it can also be a physical, spatial, or temporal barrier. The specific
strategies employed assume that pathogens are present and that infection will occur without the
intervention of protective measures. For example, bananas are covered with plastic sleeves as
soon as the fruit are set (Figure 12) to protect the fruit from various pests including fruit decay
fungi.

Protection often involves some cultural practice that modifies the environment, such as tillage,
drainage, irrigation, or altering soil pH. It may also involve changing date or depth of seeding,
plant spacing, pruning and thinning, or other practices that allow plants to escape infection or
reduce severity of disease. Raising planting beds (Figure 13) to assure good soil water drainage
is an example of cultural management of plant diseases such as root and stem rots.

Many cultural practices can be modified to manage the occurrence, intensity or severity of plant
diseases. These include selection of suitable growing sites for the crop, adequate tillage to bury
pathogen-infested plant residues, rotation to nonsusceptible crops, selecting pathogen-free
planting stocks, orientation of plantings to improve exposure to sun and air currents, pruning
and thinning to eliminate sources of infection and improve aeration in and around susceptible
plants, water management on both plants and in soil, adequate nutrition, proper cultivation to
improve root growth and avoid plant injury, and sanitation procedures to eliminate sources of
inoculum.
Biological control involves the use of one living organism to control another, and this
management technology has received much attention in recent times. However, the number of
biological agents registered for use is relatively small, success has been limited, and application
has been largely restricted to intensively managed, high value crops such as greenhouse plants.
Two examples of effective biological control are the use of the fungus Peniophora gigantea to
inoculate tree stumps to prevent infection of adjacent trees by the wood decay
fungus Heterobasidion annosum, and the application of the nonpathogenic (i.e., non-tumor-
producing) bacterium Agrobacterium radiobacter to fruit trees before planting to prevent
infection by the crown gall bacterium (Agrobacterium tumefaciens) (see Crown gall disease
lesson)

RESISTANCE
Use of disease-resistant plants is the ideal method to manage plant diseases, if plants of
satisfactory quality and adapted to the growing region with adequate levels of durable resistance
are available. The use of disease-resistant plants eliminates the need for additional efforts to
reduce disease losses unless other diseases are additionally present. Resistant plants are usually
derived by standard breeding procedures of selection and/or hybridization. A few disease-
resistant lines have been obtained by inducing mutations with x-rays or chemicals. There is also
interest in chemicals called “plant activators” that induce plant defense responses called
systemic acquired resistance (SAR) and induced resistance. Recently, resistant plants have been
developed through the use of genetic engineering (e.g., resistance to the Papaya ringspot virus).
(Selection of resistant plants involves subjecting plants to high levels of disease pressure
(Figure 18) and using the surviving plants as sources of disease resistance. Plants that survive
this pressure often have genetic resistance that can be utilized directly by propagation or as
sources of resistance to develop resistant plants that also have the requisite qualities for that
crop. Hybridization is a tactic where a plant having the desired agronomic or horticultural
qualities, but is susceptible to a disease, is crossed with a plant that is resistant but which may
or may not have the other desirable characteristics such as size, yield, flavor, aesthetics, etc.

Disease escape occurs when susceptible plants do not become diseased for some reason. This
may be due to some anatomical or physical character, such as the occurrence of leaf hairs, thick
cuticle, or modified stomata, or they may be environmental, in which conditions are not
conducive to disease development. Although disease escape based on some anatomical feature
is useful occasionally, escape more often complicates the process of developing disease
resistant plants.
Development of disease-resistant plants has been relatively successful with annual and biennial
plants, but less so with perennials, primarily because of the longer time required to develop and
test the progeny. Woody perennials, such as ornamental, forest, and orchard trees, have been
especially difficult for plant breeders to develop useful disease resistance. For example,
chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease have devastated two valued native trees. In both cases
there have been extensive attempts to develop resistant trees, usually by creating hybrids with
exotic chestnut or elm trees, and some resistant selections have resulted. Unfortunately, these
generally lack the desirable qualities, such as nut flavor or tree forms characteristic of the native
trees. Another introduced disease that has impacted native trees is white pine blister rust. There
has been an intense effort for more than 50 years to select and improve rust-resistant pines from
the surviving population. These trees are now being planted for reforestation, but it will be
another 50 or so years, when these trees have matured to produce a timber crop, before the
success of this program is known.
Development of resistance has been most successful against the more specialized pathogens
such as rust fungi (Figure 19), smut fungi, powdery mildew fungi, and viruses, but less so
against general pathogens such as many blight, canker, root rot and leaf spotting pathogens.

A major problem with genetically resistant plants is that host-differentiated pathogenic races
can be selected, so that many breeding programs become continuous processes to develop
disease resistant plant lines. Disease resistance conferred by a single major gene is sometimes
called specific or qualitative resistance and is race-specific. This type of resistance is often
unstable, and emergence of a pathogenic race that can attack that genotype can completely
overcome this type of resistance. Quantitative resistance or general resistance derives from
many different genes for resistance with additive effects to provide more stable (or durable)
resistance to pathogens.