The cereal-cyst nematode was first recognized as a parasite of cereals in
Germany in 1873 by J.Kuhn and is now recorded in most wheat-growing regions of the world. Cyst nematodes were recognized for many years as the cause of yield loss in cereal crops in most European countries and now in almost wheat-growing regions of the world. It was known in most of these countries as the oat-cyst nematode because the greatest effects of disease were observed in oats. In recent years, however, most attention in Europe has been directed toward control of the disease in barley.
Cereal cyst nematodes attack only members of the grass family (Poaceae). They enter only the meristematic tissue near root tips and the feeding process causes different symptoms to occur on different cereal crops. Wheat roots become bushy, knotted, and shallow roots become thickened and shortened, and barley roots exhibit no readily discernable symptoms. Leaf tips often become discolored: reddish-yellow on wheat, red on oats, and yellow on barley. Plants of each cereal crop may become stunted in patches Root damage by H. avenae often also favors greater colonization of roots by root-rotting fungal pathogens and by saprophytic bacteria, fungi, and non-plant-parasitic nematodes. These secondary organisms cause more intense rotting and discoloration than that caused by the plant-parasitic nematode itself.
Some researchers tested the efficiency of about six extraction methods for the recovery of females and cysts of the cereal cyst-nematode, Heterodera avenae, from a range of soils. Methods that included elutriation were best.