VIDALIA — It was this time last year that a dreaded fungus started creeping into area fields, but things are clear this year.

Soybean rust was reported in a sentinel plot in Rapides Parish in mid- to late-June 2007, and by mid-August the disease made its debut in Concordia Parish, but has not been yet been found locally this year.

Wind-borne spores spread the disease, and many believe Hurricane Ivan first brought it to the United States.

“It is a wind-blown pathogen that moves in the wind great distances really quickly,” MSU Extension Service soybean expert Trey Koger said.

The fungus can also find a host in kudzu, and the disease has been found in three kudzu plots in south Louisiana.

However, hot and dry weather conditions will hamper the disease’s spread.

“It (rust) does not like hot, dry weather,” Koger said. “It will survive under hot conditions, but a lot of times it won’t spread.”

If untreated, Asian soybean rust can cause plants to defoliate prematurely and beans to rot on the vine.

Soybean rust often does not get severe until the reproductive stages of the plants, so the extension service planted its sentinel plots in southwestern and southern Mississippi a little earlier than other soybean planting to help detect rust and make decisions about rust treatment, Koger said.

Though there are a number of studies being conducted to produce rust-resistant plants, the best treatment for rust is still the use of fungicide.

“The resistant varieties (of soybeans) can be very short lived because the (rust) pathogen mutates very quickly,” Koger said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture advised last week that using fungicide at this time would premature.