May 27, 2010

Scientists have identified four new strains of a wheat-killing fungus that could endanger the global food supply, according to a research presented on Wednesday (May 26).

The mutant strains of the fungus, called Ug99, originated in Africa but are likely to spread into Asia and beyond, said the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), a US-based advocacy group focusing on wheat contagions.

"The new mutations - identified last year in South Africa - will make wheat crops more vulnerable as pathogens now will find new wind trajectories for migration," BGRI said in a statement announcing the new research.

Ug99, a variant of the deadly wheat affliction commonly known as stem rust, is a reddish-brown, wind-borne fungus that causes plants to fall over and can wipe out an entire harvest.

It emerged in East Africa a decade ago and has since spread as far as Yemen and Iran, leading scientists to scramble to develop new, Ug99-resistant breeds of wheat, BGRI said.

Scientists cited by BGRI said the fungus posed a serious risk to the densely populated and impoverished countries of South Asia, and in the longer term could reach Australia and North America.

Ug99 "threatens to spread into other wheat-producing regions of Africa and Asia, and potentially, the entire world," said Arun Kumar Joshi, a scientist with the Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre.

"The threat is particularly acute in South Asia, which produces 20% of world wheat for a population of 1.4 billion people," Joshi added.

Wheat accounts for 30% of global grain production and 20% of the food calories that the world's population consumes every day, according to data provided by BGRI, which is based at Cornell University.