Estimating Losses Caused by Tobacco Vein Mottling Virus in Burley Tobacco. G. V. Gooding, Jr.,, Professor of Plant Pathology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27650. C. E. Main, Professor of Plant Pathology, and L. A. Nelson, Professor of Statistics, North Carolina State University, Raleigh 27650. Plant Dis. 65:889-891. Accepted for publication 23 February 1981. Copyright 1981 American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-65-889.

Procedures are described for estimating losses caused by tobacco vein mottling virus (TVMV) on burley tobacco in individual fields and for the entire crop in North Carolina. The estimations take into account TVMV-cultivar interaction, compensation effect of uninfected plants, and disease incidence. The effect of the virus on different cultivars was studied in naturally infected fields or in artificially inoculated experimental plots. Using the proposed method, we estimated the yield loss of burley tobacco from TVMV in North Carolina in 1978 at 406,940 lb, valued at $520, 883. These estimates were based on reported average incidence of TVMV of 12.2% in the 1978 burley tobacco crop in North Carolina.