Researchers model ways to control deadly maize disease

Researchers have used mathematical modelling to develop techniques to combat two co-infecting viruses causing maize lethal necrosis (MLN) in Kenya.

Corn plants. Image credit: Primejyothi/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The study’s objective was to test whether mathematical modelling could be used to make practical recommendations for disease control.

This is important since MLN is a big problem, causing up to 90 per cent yield loss in heavily infected areas. MLN has been spreading in Kenya for the last six years, and has also been detected in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania.

MLN usually arises from the interaction of two viruses: maize chlorotic mottle virus (MSMV) and sugarcane mosaic virus (SCMV).

The researchers from France, Germany, United Kingdom and the United Sates modelled the dynamics of SCMV and MCMV infection within and between maize growing periods, either during the long- or short-rain growing seasons. The model accounted for local virus transmission by vectors, through seeds, from infested soil and other sources.

They then assessed control strategies for large and small farms under three scenarios: no management of disease, management without crop rotation and management with crop rotation.

The findings show that combining crop rotation, using virus-free seed, removing plants showing disease symptoms and controlling insect pests is the best way to control MLN.

But the control must be done synchronously over large areas because other diseases could repeatedly re-invade from outside the controlled area.

When two viruses infect a plant, they can interact with each other to cause much worse symptoms and greater losses of yield.

The researchers suggest that the model could provide practical information for key actors such as policymakers to control other crop diseases resulting from viral co-infection.

But they also say that further studies are needed to help understand how co-infection of plants by the two viruses implicated in MLN affects seed and vector transmission. (SciDev.Net)

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