Occurrence of leaf spot of oat caused by Alternaria alternata in Multan, Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Oat (Avena stiva L.) is a fast growing and high yielding winter fodder crop. It is highly palatable, nutritious and energy rich fodder. Recently, the oat plantation at different locations of Multan was found to be suffered with a new type of leaf spot disease. Isolation from affected portions revealed consistent association of Alternaria alternata with this disease. In order to confirm the etiology of this disease, pathogenicity test was conducted on oat plants in greenhouse conditions with four different isolates of Alternaria alternata, which produced the similar symptoms, hence satisfied the Koch^,s postulates. Survey results showed that the maximum disease incidence of 51.99% was recorded from Band Bosan, followed by 43.33, 31.33 and 27.66% incidences at Raza Abad, Basti No and Lutfa Abad, respectively. Maximum severity of disease was recorded at Band Bosan (31.99%), followed by Raza Abad (21.66%), Basti No (11.33%) and Lutfa Abad (7.33%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of Alternaria alternata causing leaf spot of oat.