Rice white tip nematode: Aphelenchoides besseyi

Symptoms

Infested paddy grain filled with nematode	Infested Paddy field

• Feeding at leaf tips in rice results in whitening of the top 3-5 cm of the leaf, leading to necrosis. There is also distortion of the flag leaf that encloses the panicle.
• Diseased plants are stunted, lack vigour and produce small panicles. Affected panicles show high sterility, distorted glumes and small and distorted kernels.
• In the seed-bed, emergence of severely infected seedlings is delayed and germination is low. 
• The most conspicuous symptoms occur at the tillering stage. 

Management

• Preventive Measures – Aphelenchoides besseyi infestations can be avoided by using nematode-free seeds and planting in nematode-free fields.
• Hot water treatment of seed can be used to destroy this nematode infecting the seeds, found that thermal wet treatment was the most effective. Aphelenchoides besseyi was not recovered from rice seeds, which received hot water treatment at 55-60°C for 15 minutes, but was observed in seed subjected to hot water treatment at 50°C. lower temperatures (52-53 °C for 15 minutes) for hot water treatment have been reported.
• Apply carbofuran 3G in nursery @ 1.0 kg a.i/ha (175 g/cent) 7 days before transplanting.