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Old 08-22-2009, 11:17 AM   #11 (permalink)
Scot Nelson
 
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Location: Honolulu, Hawaii
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Name: Scot Nelson
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Default Re: Bunchy top virus?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Caloosamusa View Post
Good evening Dr. Nelson,

Is there a known or calculated rate of Bunchy Top infection in Hawaii?

It seems that the control measures are effective. Is this accurate, and how can it be calculated?
In plant disease epidemiology, rate of disease increase in a population is represented by a parameter ("r") in a nonlinear regression model such as the exponential, monomolecular or Gompertz models.

One would evaluate models until the best-fitting one is found. After applying disease control measure(s) such as eradication of diseased plants, calculate r to see the reduction in the value for the parameter. One would have to have multiple plots of plants in an experiment to accomplish this.

For various reasons, I have not bothered to do that yet, Caloosamusa. Control measures are successful in Hawaii, such as selection of planting location, selection of banana variety, planting disease-free pups (tissue culture, for example), and scouting for and eradication of diseased plants and control of banana aphids. Where no control is practiced, a farm could suffer a very high proportion of infected plants.

Scot
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