Phytophthora megakarya

Phytophthora megakarya is an oomycete plant pathogen whose only known host is the cocoa tree, Theobroma cacao, in West and Central Africa. It causes black pod disease, in which infected cocoa pods rot and turn black, and is described as the most virulent Phytophthora species affecting cacao and the most important cocoa pathogen in central and west Africa. Untreated infections can destroy up to 80 percent of a farm's pods and typical annual losses run 20 to 25 percent of the crop, with about 10 percent of trees lost each year in severe cases; the disease strikes an industry worth roughly 70 billion dollars annually, concentrated in Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Ivory Coast, four of the world's ten largest cocoa producers.