Banana On The Brink of Extinction

   

Bananas are facing potential extinction, experts have cautioned, as a deadly tropical disease sweeps across crops worldwide.

Known as Panama disease, or Fusarium oxysporum f.sp. cubense, the fungal infection has already spread throughout Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia and Central America. 

Should the infection reach South America, researchers warn the Cavendish banana – the species most commonly sold and consumed worldwide – could face extinction. 

Chemical treatment has proved ineffective at halting the spread of the disease, with experts only able to stop the fungus by quarantining vast swathes of farmland.

Cavendish bananas are genetically identical to one another, which allows Panama disease to rapidly decimate entire harvest yields. 

Some five billion Cavendish bananas are eaten each year in the UK alone

-Dailymail