Occurrence of Chilli veinal mottle virus in Solanum aethiopicum in Tanzania

African eggplant, or garden egg (Solanum aethiopicum) is an important vegetable in most sub-Saharan African countries. Since June 1997, viral symptoms, including mosaic, vein clearing, and stunting, have been observed on several crops of African eggplant cv. Tengeru White at a number of sites in the Arusha region of northern Tanzania. Field inspections revealed disease incidence ranging from 50 to 90%. During the same period, high populations of the green peach aphid Myzus persicae were observed in affected crops of African eggplant. These aphids were also found to reproduce in African eggplants. Flexuous, rodshaped virus-like particles, approximately 750 nm long and 12 nm wide, were found in electron microscope leaf dips from field samples of naturally affected African eggplants. The particle size suggested a species of Potyviridae. Thus, 20 field-infected samples of S. aethiopicum (randomly collected from four farms) were assayed in double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DAS-ELISA) ...