First Report of Banana Streak Virus Disease in Malawi. D. R. Vuylsteke, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, P.O. Box 7878, Kampala, Uganda . C. T. Chizala, Mkondezi Experimental Station, P.O. Box 133, Nkhata Bay, Malawi; and B. E. Lockhart, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul 55108, USA. Plant Dis. 80:224. Accepted for publication 15 December 1995. Copyright 1996 The American Phytopathological Society. DOI: 10.1094/PD-80-0224I.

Symptoms resembling those of viral leaf streak of banana, caused by banana streak badnavirus (BSV) (2), were observed in February 1995 on three of 22 cultivars of banana (Musa spp ) maintained in duplicate field collections at Baka, Karonga, and Mwangulukuju, Songwe, northern Malawi. These collections were established in January 1991 from local cultivars. The accessions showing symptoms were a plantain (Musa AAB group), cv. Kambani (AB), and the putative AA cv. Ndyali Uluwa. Leaf symptoms ranged from initial chlorotic streaks to later brown and black chlorotic streaks. Leaf samples were indexed by electron microscopy (EM) and immunoelectron microscopy using partially purified preparations and by double antibody sandwich-enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) using crude extracts. All 3 symptomatic banana cultivars tested positive for BSV by the three indexing methods used, confirming the occurrence of BSV in Malawi. The identification of BSV in local banana cultivars in Malawi corroborates published reports that BSV occurs in all banana-producing areas of East and Southern Africa including Uganda, Pemba, Zanzibar, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Madagascar, and South Africa (I).