Survey for chickpea and lentil virus diseases in Ethiopia

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and lentil (Lens culinaris Medik.) are among the major cool-season food legumes grown in Ethiopia. Fungal and viral diseases are important factors limiting production of these two crops in the Country. As there is no systematic study on the virus diseases of these crops, a survey to identify virus diseases of chickpea and lentil crops in Shewa province, Ethiopia, was conducted during November 14-23, 1998. The survey covered a random selection of 33 chickpea and 32 lentil fields. Virus disease incidence was determined by laboratory testing 100-200 randomly collected samples from each field with antisera of 12 viruses. In chickpea fields, beet western yellows polerovirus (BWYV) was most frequently found and in lentil fields pea seed-borne mosaic potyvirus (PSbMV) was the most common, followed by luteoviruses [BWYV and soybean dwarf virus (SbDV)]. Laboratory testing of random samples showed that 5 chickpea and 11 lentil fields had a virus disease incidence of 21% or higher. The highest virus disease incidence in a single field was 58.5% for lentil (PSbMV) and 41.3% for chickpea (BWYV). Other viruses detected more rarely were faba bean necrotic yellows nanovirus (FBNYV) and broad bean wilt fabavirus (BBWV) in chickpea; FBNYV, broad bean stain comovirus (BBSV), bean yellow mosaic potyvirus (BYMV) and cucumber mosaic cucumovirus (CMV) in lentil