Success Immunizing Banana Plants in Philippines against Fusarium Race 4 (FOC)

It is very important to emphasize that in order to prevent the spread of FOC, along with these described immune therapy vaccines, a level one Biosecurity and Disease Management Program be implemented at any and all banana farms across the globe.

Outlined below are recommended biosecurity precautionary measures and protocol to reduce the spread of this disease. 
 

COUNTRIES WHERE FUSARIUM RACE 4 (FOC) DOES NOT EXIST
 

1)  All passengers who are coming from or having visited any country where bananas are grown in Asia into Fusarium Race 4 (FOC) infection free countries will have to be advised at the port of entry to NOT be allowed to enter into banana growing areas.
 

2)  Banana tourists to be WARNED to not go into the banana growing areas. All travel websites concerning travel to these non-fusarium infested countries should add this WARNING to their website content.

 

 

It is vital and of utmost necessity all banana farm points of entry have a thorough and detailed Biosecurity and Disease Management Program implemented regardless the cost to safeguard against further spread of FOC.

 

1)  Each person entering a banana farm must wear rain boots that have been dipped into deep sterilizing troughs that have a brush to scrub any soils that are on these boots. Highly important to have extra rain boots available for visitors to be loaned upon entry if they do not have them.
 

2)  All vehicles entering or exiting into the banana growing farms undergo a pressure washing not only the tires but the entire underside of the vehicles by high pressure washing nozzles buried below the deep troughs so that the operator can use it to wash all the undersides of the vehicles to avoid bringing any clods of soil from an infected areas and/or taking it to any clean areas.
 

3)  All managers, workers and drivers must be given a course on biosecurity protocol and disease management that the company will establish to protect all their jobs and ultimately, the banana industry.
 

4)  Agro-K Philippines has developed a vaccine to be injected into all the mats surrounding the infected plants in order to immunize them from the disease. The vaccine works even injected one-month pre-flowering. The good news is this immunization is carried to the Daughters. This vaccine is a relatively inexpensive immunization therapy compared to the high cost of denuding vast areas of the banana farms as the disease spreads very quickly. To-date, China has lost 20% of their banana growing areas.
 

5)  All infected plants, either single or multiple mats, along with non-infected mats in that given surrounding area, be segregated or quarantined with meter-high chicken wire netting to prevent dogs, cats and chickens going in and out of these areas. Bamboo notices and warning signs simply are not enough to stop the spread of this invasive disease. Any of the non-infected banana plants surrounding the infected plants need to be vaccinated from outside the barricade. To avoid contamination, no person should be allowed to enter into these barricaded areas to harvest even a single bunch of fruit.  Furthermore, the soil in this barricaded area must be sterilized using a sterilant solution sprayed from outside the barriers to drench the surface of the soil completely. This process of sterilizing the surface areas of the soil prevents the spread of the disease by rain or wind. Important to note, regarding these abandoned areas, once the surface soils have been sterilized, there is the option to plant Meristems. Every plant can now be injected with the FOC vaccine to allow them to produce bananas that can be harvested by workers standing outside the barrier practicing the above biosecurity protocols.