By Alabama Public Radio
Undated – A plant pathologist with Purdue University says he's concerned Hurricane Dennis may have picked up a soybean fungus from Alabama. Greg Shaner says Dennis' winds swept across an area of southwestern Alabama where fields are infected with soybean rust. It's spread by wind-borne spores. Shaner says the storm may have picked up fungal spores from Alabama and Florida and carried them to other Southern and Midwestern states. He says farmers and agricultural scientists across the country will be monitoring soybean fields during the next few weeks. Soybean rust has not caused serious damage in the U-S, but it cost Brazilian farmers about one billion dollars last year.