Rice Bacterial Leaf Blight in West Africa: Preliminary Studies on Disease in Farmers’ Fields and Screening Released Varieties for Resistance to the Bacteria

As little information is available in Africa on Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae, a highly destructive pathogen of rice, and its relationship with released rice varieties, a disease survey and samplings were carried out in Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali which indicated a wide spread of Bacterial Leaf blight (BLB) in farmers’ fields. Sixty pure BLB isolates cultures were obtained. Pathogenecity of 4 Malian isolates against four important rice varieties revealed differences in pathogenecity among isolates and resistance of the varieties tested. The results obtained in these initial studies revealed the future research directions to increasing rice production in West Africa.鉴于非洲地区关于水稻毁灭性致病菌水稻白叶枯病菌（Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae）及其与已审定推广水稻品种间互作关系的研究资料极为匮乏，研究团队遂在尼日尔、布基纳法索与马里境内开展病害调查与采样工作，结果显示农户田间的水稻白叶枯病（Bacterial Leaf Blight, BLB）分布广泛。本次研究共获得60株纯培养的水稻白叶枯病菌分离株。针对4株马里来源的病菌分离株，研究人员对4个生产上重要的水稻品种开展了致病性测定，结果发现不同分离株的致病性存在差异，且供试品种的抗病性亦各不相同。本项初步研究的结果明确了西非地区提升水稻产量的后续研究方向。