(Woll.) in the cereal growing areas of the Slovak Republic was studied. 188 soil samples from 27 districts throughout the country were analysed; Heterodera avenae was present in 56.4% of the samples, at an incidence of 2-81 cysts in 100 g soil. At 87 localities the incidence of the parasite was low, at 15 it was medium, and high at 4 localities.
81Plant Protect. Sci. Vol. 41, The problem was sufficiently important to require characterisation of H. avenae pathotypes in Czechoslovakia. The first study on this aspect was done by SABOVÁ et al. (1988b), who tested four H. avenae populations and showed the predominance of pathotype C (Ha 12). Several pathotypes of H. avenae have been found in Europe, for example, the two pathotypes Ha51 and Ha11 occur in Norway (ROSLANGEN 1998).The aim of this work was to determine the current occurrence of Heterodera avenae in Slovakia at localities where a higher occurrence of it had been observed during previous studies (SABOVÁ et al. 1977;VALOCKÁ et al. 1993b) and to compare the new data with previous ones.
MATERIAL AND METHODSThe survey of the occurrence and geographical distribution of Heterodera avenae sensu stricto in the Slovak Republic was performed during 2003 and 2004. In the cereal growing areas of Slovakia, 188 soil samples were collected from the rhizosphere of cereals (115 in winter wheat, 41 in winter barley, 18 in spring barley, 10 in oat and 4 in rye) at a depth of 15-20 cm, 2 weeks before harvest. One basic sample (500 g of soil) was obtained from an area of 10 × 10 m by 10 randomised soil collections. Average samples (200 g) were obtained by mixing two basic samples. The samples were slowly dried in a laboratory and cysts were extracted from 100 g of soil by using the flotation method (SABOVÁ & VALOCKÁ 1980). The species to which the cysts belonged were identified morphologically by the original descriptions of cysts and second stage larvae development (MULVEY 1972;WOUTS & WEISHER 1977). The population densities of H. avenae were evaluated as low if there were less than 14 cysts/100 g soil, as medium for 14 to 40 cysts/100 g, and high for more than 40 cysts/100 g soil.
RESULTSThe current occurrence and geographical distribution of H. avenae in the Slovak Republic is presented in Table 1. The incidence of cysts ranged from 2 to 81 cysts in 100 g of soil. In the area with more intensive cultivation of cereals in Western Slovakia, 111 localities were investigated, with a medium abundance of occurrence at 53.1%. The abundance varied from 25 to 100% (district of Senica). The highest incidence was found in district Zlaté Moravce (81 cysts/100 g soil), which also showed the highest average number of cysts per locality (29.6 cysts). The lowest abundance was in the district of Pezinok, although the incidence was relatively high (23 cysts/100 g soil). Only in district Piešťany was no H. avenae found.In the Central area of the Slovak Republic, 64 localities were investigated with an abundance of 54.6%. The areas with the most infested soil were in district Nové Mesto na...