FAO TRACKS DAMAGING WHEAT DISEASE
July 1st, 2010
BY KEITH NUTHALL
A WEBSITE has been launched by the UN Food & Agriculture Organisation to track Ug99, a devastating strain of wheat stem rust disease. Scientists fear it is spreading across Africa and could infect South Asia. The mutation shows that keeping a food disease at minimal levels does not guarantee safety. "Emergence of the Ug99 races in East Africa [discovered in Uganda during 1999] transformed stem rust from a disease largely under control into a significant global threat," said David Hodson, the FAO's international focal point officer ...
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