Disease Note.

First Report of Banana Streak Virus in Farmers' Fields in Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria, West Africa. C. Pasberg-Gauhl, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria. F. Gauhl, and P. Schill, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), PMB 5320, Ibadan, Nigeria; B. E. L. Lockhart, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, 495 Borlaug Hall, 1991 Upper Buford Circle, St. Paul 55108, USA; K. Afreh-Nuamah and J. K. Osei, University of Ghana, Agricultural Research Station, POB 43, Kadc, Ghana; and K. Zuofa, Rivers Stale University of Science and Technology, PMB 5080, Port Har-court, Nigeria. Plant Dis. 80:224. Accepted for publication 4 January 1996. Copyright 1996 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-0224H.

During 1993 to 1994, surveys were conducted in farmers' fields in Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria to document the occurrence and frequency of viral leaf streak in local cultivars of banana and plantain (Musa sp). Viral leaf streak of Musa is caused by banana streak virus (BSV), a mealybug-transmitted badnavirus (1). Symptoms of BSV infection in Musa are sometimes similar to those caused by cucumber mosaic virus (CMV), and the two diseases have sometimes been confused. Leaf samples from symptomatic plants were indexed by double antibody sandwich-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) using crude extracts, and by immunosorbent electron microscopy (ISEM) using partially purified extracts (I). Antiserum to BSV was prepared as described (1), and antiserum to CMV (ATCC PVAS 30) was obtained from the American Type Culture Collection, Rockville, MD. In Benin, BSV was identified in different plantain and banana landraces from four villages, where symptomatic plants had been reported. In Ghana, two plantain Iandraces. Apantu (False Horn) and Asamienu (True Horn), were found to be infected with BSV in two of the 25 farms inspected between Kade and Donnaa Ahenkro at the Cote d'Ivoire border. In Nigeria, BSV was identified in three out of 60 farms visited. False Horn and French Horn plantain land-races were infected with BSV in farmers' homestead gardens located in one village in Imo State and two villages in Rivers Slate, southeast Nigeria. In all farms in the three countries symptomatic plants were I to 2% of the population except one farm in Benin, where symptomatic plants were 15%. This is the first report positively identifying BSV in farmers' fields in Benin, Ghana, and Nigeria. None of the symptomatic plants were infected with CMV as determined by DAS-ELISA and ISEM.