Browsing by Author "Ssekiwoko, Fred"

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    Fine-tuning banana Xanthomonas wilt control options over the past decade in East and Central Africa
    (European journal of plant pathology, 2014) Blomme, Guy; Jacobsen, Kim; Ocimati, Walter; Beed, Fen; Ntamwira, Jules; Sivirihauma, Charles; Ssekiwoko, Fred; Nakato, Valentine; Kubiriba, Jerome; Tripathi, Leena; Tinzaara, William; Mbolela, Flory; Lutete, Lambert; Karamura, Eldad
    Xanthomonas wilt, caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. musacearum has, since 2001, become the most important and widespread disease of Musa in East and Central Africa. Over the past decade, new research findings and especially feedback from smallscale farmers have helped in fine-tuning Xanthomonas wilt control options. During the initial years of the Xanthomonas wilt epidemic in East Africa, the complete uprooting of diseased mats and the burning or burying of plant debris was advocated as part of a control package which included the use of clean garden tools and early removal of male buds to prevent insect vector transmission. Uprooting a complete mat (i.e. the mother plant and a varying number of lateral shoots) is understandably time-consuming and labour intensive and becomes very cumbersome when a large number of diseased mats have to be removed. Recent research findings suggest that Xcm bacteria do not colonize all lateral shoots (i.e. incomplete systemicity occurs) and even when present that this does not necessarily lead to symptom expression and disease.