NAIROBI (Reuters Sept 8th 05) - A resilient new strain of wheat fungus from east Africa is threatening to spread to the Middle East, Asia and the Americas and bring catastrophic crop damage, scientists said on Thursday.
Researchers said the new Ug99 form of stem rust could be spread by the wind and attack many varieties of spring and winter wheat that were resistant to other strains of the fungus.
The strain could easily spread from Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, which were the countries currently affected.
"Recognising the potential that this disease has...there's almost no one exempt," said Ronnie Coffman, head of Cornell University's Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics.
"What we have to achieve is to stop this disease from spreading to other parts of the world. Otherwise we are going to see a catastrophe," said Masa Iwanaga, director general of Mexico's International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre
The scientists gave no firm numbers on potential damage, but said they feared an epidemic similar to those that caused major grain losses in North America in 1903, 1905 and 1950-54 and famine in Asia. All those occurred before the cultivation of wheat varieties that were immune to stem rust, the report said.
***Thoughts
Could be serious, especially in Africa where thousands are starving.
I rem reading about a black fungus that attacked damp wheat? Affecting thousands of people in the Middle Ages, sending them quite mad
