A survey of extent of infection and contamination of cotton-seed market and commercial gin samples by Xanthomonas malvacearum (E.F. Smith) Dowson in the Northern States of Nigeria

Abstract

The extent of infection and contamination of 32 market (hand-ginned) and commercial gin samples of cotton seed by Xanthomonas malvacearum (E.F.Sm.) Dowson, the cause of bacterial blight of cotton, was assessed in the 1979 and 1980 growing seasons at Samaru by scoring the incidence and severity of bacterial blight on seedlings grown from the samples. Cotton-seed samples from various markets in the northern and southern cotton-growing zone, where Samaru 71 is the commercial cultivar, gave higher levels of bacterial blight than samples from the eastern cotton-growing zone where Samaru 72 is the commercial cultivar. There was some variability in blight levels from samples obtained from the northern and eastern zones. Commercial gin samples tended to produce higher levels of bacterial blight than the hand-ginned market samples.