In the mid 1900's, the most popular variety of banana in the world - the Gros Michel - was almost completely wiped out by a fungus known as Panama Disease. The Gros Michel was replaced by the Cavendish banana, which makes up about 95 percent of the world's banana exports.

But a new study by Dr. Gert Kema, a senior researcher with Plant Research International at Wageningen University in The Netherlands, has identified a new and more potent strain of Panama Disease. The new strain - Tropical Race 4 - began infecting bananas in Southeast Asia 50 years ago and has since spread to other parts of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

Researchers fear that unless a way to stop or contain the disease is found, it will reach the largest banana producing region in the world, Latin America, (which supplies all of Canada's bananas) in a few decades.

Related Links

- Paper in PLOS Pathogens

- Wageningen University release

- Washington Post story

- The Telegraph story