Posted on: Wednesday, January 29, 2003

Banana virus hits Maui crop for first time

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

A virus that threatens the banana industry has been discovered on Maui for the first time, state agricultural officials said yesterday.

Banana bunchy top virus has been identified at only about a dozen homes in Pukalani, but officials are worried it has spread.

Larry Nakahara, the state Department of Agriculture's pest control manager, said that given the intensity of the symptoms on the infected plants, it appears the disease has been on Maui for more than a year.

"It looks poor for eradication" from Maui's $500,000 industry, Nakahara said. "But that doesn't mean we won't try to control it."

Department employees have destroyed the diseased plants and those near them and are looking for more in the Upcountry area, he said.

A survey of the entire island has been completed without finding the virus elsewhere. But that doesn't mean it isn't in the other places, Nakahara said, since it can take weeks to months for the disease to show itself.

Agriculture officials are discussing the possibility of establishing a quarantine on the importation of banana plants to other non-infected parts of the state, said Neil Reimer, the department's Plant Quarantine Branch manager.

The viral disease, spread by the banana aphid, causes stunting of the leaves, giving plants a "bunchy top" appearance. Generally, a banana plant infected with the virus will not set fruit. Other symptoms include stunted young shoots, narrow, yellow and brittle leaves, and dark green streaks on the leaf stalks.

The virus can be spread by moving and planting infected banana plants or simply by the wind, which can blow the tiny insects to other regions, officials said.

Banana bunchy top virus was found in the state in 1989 at a farm in Punalu'u, O'ahu. It now is found in most areas of O'ahu and has spread to the Big Island and Kaua'i, where the state has battled the virus with mixed success.

There is no cure for the virus, but there is hope for control using a ladybird beetle that Nakahara brought back to Hawai'i from a recent vacation to Thailand. The little black predator eats banana aphids.

Scientists have a few tests to run before the department can ask authorities for permission to release the beetles into the wild, Nakahara said.

Anyone who sees banana bunchy top virus is asked to call the department on O'ahu at 973-9538 or on Maui at 873-3555.