Open Access

Wheat is an important crop for human nutrition in the world, and is grown on 218.4 million hectares. Wheat is also one of the major and strategic crops in Turkey in terms of economy, nutrition and employment. Wheat in Turkey is grown on 7.8 million hectares, with a total production of 22 million metric tons. Wheat seed gall nematode, Anguina tritici, is considered an economically important pest of wheat in substandard agricultural conditions in some parts of the Thrace region of Turkey, where it is found in limited fields. In this study, seed samples were collected from farmers' storages in 2015 for determining the wheat gall nematode occurrence and distribution across wheat fields in Thrace Region provinces, which are on the European side of Turkey. Evaluation was done with 685 wheat seed samples from Edirne, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ provinces, which have together a share of 5.6% in wheat production areas and 7.2% in total production amount. A total of 507 seed samples were from Edirne province, 156 samples were from Kırklareli province, and 21 samples were from Tekirdağ province. Seed gall nematode was found to contaminate 13 samples; with 10, 3, and 0 samples being found to be contaminated with wheat gall nematode from Edirne, Kırklareli and Tekirdağ provinces, respectively. Wheat gall nematodes were present in fields of the farmers who do not utilize certified seed and modern seed cleaning techniques.

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