The Turkey-ICARDA Cereal Rust Biosafety Laboratory (CRBL) become operational after the official inauguration of Regional Cereal Rust Research center (RCRRC) on May 30, 2018. Following the inauguration, the CRBL has received official import permits from Food and Control Directorate of Turkey for importing cereal rust pathogens from outside Turkey and to conduct race analysis of Puccinia striiformis, P. graminis, and P. triticina at CRBL. The Turkey-ICARDA RCRRC is now fully operational and the first report on stem rust samples is now available (Turkey-ICARDA RCRRC 2018 Preliminary Stem Rust Race Analysis Report).

This report presents the race analysis data of wheat stem rust (Puccinia graminis) samples collected during the 2018 rust survey from Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, and Turkey which were submitted to the Cereal Rust Biosafety Laboratory (CRBL) at Turkey-ICARDA Regional Cereal Rust Research Center (RCRRC) in Izmir, Turkey. From a total of 129 samples received, results are presented 52 isolates. A total of 4 stem rust races were detected – TKKTF, TKTTF, TTKTT and TTTTF, with races TKKTF and TKTTF showing wide geographical distribution across countries (Fig.1).

Figure 1.  Total number of P. graminis races from Azerbaijan, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, RCRRC, 2018