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Pests and Diseases

Panama Disease Tropical Race 4

Fungal Diseases of Crops

A soilborne strain of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense that attacks the Cavendish banana, the cultivar that supplies the great majority of the world's banana export trade, after an earlier race of the same fungus wiped out the previously dominant Gros Michel cultivar in the mid twentieth century. First detected in Southeast Asia in the 1990s, tropical race 4 has since spread to Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, and because it persists in soil indefinitely and has no effective chemical control, it is regarded as the single greatest threat to the global banana industry.

Facts
Classification
Agent Kind
Fungus 1
Connections

Associated With

Banana, Crops

Panama disease Tropical Race 4, a fusarium wilt, threatens the Cavendish banana that dominates world export production.

Sources
1. Panama Disease Tropical Race 4 (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Opening definition paragraph
    Panama disease is a plant disease that infects banana plants. It is a wilting disease caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense. The pathogen is resistant to fungicides, and its control is limited to phytosanitary measures.
  • lead description
    cubense that attacks the Cavendish banana, the cultivar that supplies the great majority of the world's banana export trade, after an earlier race of the same fungus wiped out the previously dominant Gros Michel cultivar in the mid twentieth century.
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