Africa is being warned about a new banana disease

A new banana fungus is rapidly spreading around the world. It arrived in Africa a decade ago and the spread of the disease poses a threat to Africa's food security, reveals a genetic study carried out by Wageningen University and Research (WUR) and the University of Utrecht. Professor of plant pathology Gert Kema and his colleagues sound the alarm. Fusarium wilt is making headway in Mozambique, where the dominant strain TR4 is affecting banana growers. But this is not the only country affected; In the last decade, the disease has spread from Asia to South America and Africa. After the first reports from Mozambique in 2013, no further reports were made for many years. “The disease seemed to be under control in Africa. However, we learned that unfortunately this is not the case”, sighs Gert Kema, who directs the Phytopathology Laboratory. The new study was led by Ph.D. from Kema. Student Anouk van Westerhoven and bioinformatics and data scientist Michael Seidl of the University of ...