Abstract:
During November 2004, veinal chlorosis on mature cassava leaves, typical of cassava brown
streak disease (CBSD), was observed at Mukono in central Uganda. Five out of 11 cultivars at
the site showed CBSD symptoms (incidence range 4 to 64%). In a survey of farmers’ fields,
CBSD was observed in Wakiso and Mukono districts. Incidence of cassava mosaic disease was
also recorded and averaged 60% for landraces (range 16.7 to 100%) and 20% for resistant varieties (range 0 to 65%). Leaf samples of plants with CBSD symptoms produced an amplicon of
222 bp using reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction with primers that amplify a fragment of the coat protein (CP) gene of Cassava brown streak virus. Sequence comparisons based
on the amplified CP gene fragment indicated that the isolates have 77 to 82.9% nucleotide and
43.9 to 56.8% amino acid identity with those from Mozambique and Tanzania. There was 95.9
to 99.5% nucleotide and 85.1 to 90.5% amino acid identity among the Ugandan isolates. These
results confirm the re-emergence of CBSD in Uganda after it was first observed in the 1930s in
cassava introduced from Tanzania and controlled by eradication. Prior to this report, CBSD was
known to be restricted to the coastal lowlands of East Africa.