In these times of phytosanitary frenzy with the arrival of tropical race 4 fusarium wilt in the Americas (Colombia, August 2019), it is important to recall that another disease, just as devastating for the banana, is continuing to progress in Africa: the viral disease Bunchy Top (BBTV). Long familiar on this continent after being identified in Egypt in 1901, it is present in most East African, Southern African and Central African countries, as far as southern Cameroon. Yet it is now progressing toward West Africa: in 2010 in Benin, in 2011 in Nigeria and more recently in 2018 in Togo. While this disease causes varying degrees of losses on bananas for local consumption (e.g. plantains and other cooking bananas), Cavendish is seeing massive losses. Hence the disease is coming dangerously close to the large intensive production zones aimed at the export market: Cameroon, Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.
The known sanitary measures are very difficult to implement and very inefficient, since Bunchy Top is transmitted mainly by an aphid attached to the plants, which is very common in all African banana zones.
Banana Bunchy Top disease (BBTV)
The plants are markedly stunted and rosetted at the top. The narrow, erect, brittle leaves display strongly chlorotic borders. The characteristic symptom is the appearance of discontinuous dark green streaks along the pseudostem, the main leaf vein and the secondary veins. When the mother plant is infected, so are all the suckers. The most effective vector is the banana aphid Pentalonia nigronervosa.
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