Spatial and temporal impact of fungicide spray strategies on fungicide sensitivity of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Mycosphaerella graminicola</Emphasis> in winter wheat

Field experiments, involving various fungicide strategies with pyraclostrobin and/or epoxiconazole were carried out in 2004 and 2005, with the overall purpose of monitoring the evolution of fungicide sensitivity in Mycosphaerella graminicola on different isolates per leaf, leaf levels at different points of time, and points in the field. Sensitivity was assessed on single isolates by means of epoxiconazole EC₅₀-values, and monitoring of the G143A-mutation, which confers strobilurin resistance. In both years, fungicide application strategies did not cause any significant shifts in epoxiconazole sensitivity of the population median or variance over time compared to the starting population. In 2004, the end-population median was the same for all sprayed strategies, although compared to untreated median sensitivities were higher. In 2005, epoxiconazole sensitivity levels were similar on individual flag leaves and different points in the field. Measured on all isolates the EC₅₀-values ranged from 0.007–1.15 mg l⁻¹. In 2004, due to the high initial level of pyraclostrobin resistance, stabilisation of pyraclostrobin resistance was observed following the various combination treatments. No correlation between epoxiconazole sensitivities and pyraclostrobin resistance were observed. High input strategies using a mixture of epoxiconazole and pyraclostrobin resulted in the best control and yield response. A subpopulation of the isolates from 2004 was also screened for sensitivity towards five different triazoles of which tebuconazole proved to be least sensitive, and this could further be split into two subpopulations.