Surveillance of the Disease Incidence and Severity of Papaya Ringspot Virus at Four Selected Districts of Bangladesh

An experiment was conducted to survey the prevalence of disease incidence and severity of Papaya ringspot virus (PRSV) at eight locations of four districts in Bangladesh. Papaya is one of the most popular fruits in the world. It suffers from several diseases including fungi, bacteria, nematodes and viruses. Among them, viral diseases are found to cause considerable yield loss, with the most important one being PRSV. The survey was conducted at three plain districts and one hill tract area from July 2016 to December 2016. During the survey period, six different symptoms were found in the selected fields and were identified as PRSV based on symptomology. These symptoms were mild mosaic (MM), mosaic (MO), severe mosaic (SM), fern leaf (FL), leaf distortion (LD) and vein clearing (VC). The highest disease incidence (36.24%) was found in BSMRAU farm in Gazipur whereas the lowest (12.04%) was found in Panchari, Khagrachari hill tract. The maximum severity (11.53%) was found in BSMRAU campus, Gazipur on the country and the lowest severity (2.50%) was found in Panchari, Khagrachari hill tract. The yield and yield contributing parameters of papaya found to be differ significantly among the surveyed area. The lowest fruit weight (324.3 gm) due to PRSV infection was recorded in BSMRAU, Gazipur while the highest fruit weight (643.6 gm) was conducted in SAU Campus, Dhaka.