Manitoba Agriculture is reporting a new strain of clubroot of canola (Plasmodiophora brassicae), having been positively identified in the rural municipality of Pembina, says the Canola Council of Canada.

As clubroot disease spreads in western Canadian soil, growers who have yet to see symptoms in their fields have a decision to make on when they should they start growing varieties marketed as resistant to clubroot?

The Alberta Canola Producers Commission is sharing an informational brochure on clubroot resistance in canola and how to best use it as part of an integrated management plan.

The clubroot story in western Canada continues to be written as researchers are finding additional strains of the pathogen that are capable of overcoming genetic resistance, says Stephen Strelkov, plant pathology researcher at the University of Alberta.

Since new data indicates some forms of clubroot resistance are no longer functioning well against new clubroot pathotypes in some of the heavily infested fields, the Alberta Canola Producers Commission encourages growers to consider a comprehensive management plan that includes crop rotation, sanitation and the use of clubroot resistance varieties.