Banana bunchy top disease, caused by banana bunchy
top virus (BBTV), is the most economically important
virus disease of bananas (Musa spp.) and has been
recorded in many parts of the world including Australia,
Asia, Africa and the South Pacific (Dale, 1987) but not in
the Americas. In Australia, an epidemic caused by
BBTV virtually destroyed the banana industry in southeast
Queensland and northern New South Wales in the
early 1920s and has since been controlled by strict
phytosanitary regulations (Dale, 1987). In other countries,
BBTV cont