NAIROBI - 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 attacked 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.
Coffman led the group of scientists who conducted research into Ug99, and released a report on Thursday on how to fight its spread.
"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 Center (CIMMYT).
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.
Discovered in Uganda in 1999, the new strain could also be spread by travellers.
A previous strain identified in Ethiopia in 1986 arrived in Egypt five years later, and prevailing wind patterns made it likely the new strain would travel similarly, the scientists said.
The report said there was still time to isolate wheat varieties resistant to Ug99 and distribute them to farmers with susceptible crops, especially in north Africa and Asia.
Crop monitoring must also be instituted in regions close to east Africa, it said.
The report was prepared by scientists from CIMMYT, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, the Ethiopian Agricultural Research Organization and Syria's International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas.
Story by George Obulutsa
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
