Incidence of Barley Yellow Dwarf Viruses in California Cereals

An ELISA survey of BYDV in four major cereal-producing areas showed regional and year-to-year differences in the frequency of BYDV types detected. PAV types were most commonly detected in the 1,115 oat, wheat and barley samples assayed, followed by MAV and RPV types. Replicated field trials also were conducted in 1986 and 1987 to assess and compare the incidence of BYDV types in randomly collected and symptomatic samples. Chi-square analysis showed that symptomatic sampling overestimated the amount of PAV and RPV types relative to their incidence in random samples