Efficacy of urine-ash mixtures in control of the banana bacterial wilt pathogen Xanthomonas Campestris PV Musacearum

Abstract

Banana bacterial wilt caused by Xanthomonas campestris pv. Musacearum (Xcm) is one of the most devastating and disturbing disease of the banana crop that has affected banana growing activities in Uganda and other banana growing communities in the world. Diseased banana plants exhibit wilting, premature ripening of the banana fruits and eventually death of the banana plant as a whole. Due to limited knowledge and information on preventive control measures other than the already known measures such as the cutting down of the diseased plant and removal of the inflorescence of flowering plants, this has made it hard to develop integrated control measures that could be used to deal with this disease in the banana plants. As a result, the local small-scale farmers have developed alternative measures to help them manage with the disease. However, the effectiveness of using this mixture is unknown yet, it remains still unanswered if the mixture is indeed capable of controlling and stopping the spread Xcm. The urine samples were then obtained from the halls of residence at Makerere University (Lumumba Haal, Mitchell Hall, Mary-Stuart Hall and Complex Hall), and the ash samples were also got from Africa Hall and Mary-Stuart Hall all in Makerere university. The urine and ash were then mixed and fermented for 72 hours before being used for the experiment. The effect of the mixture was tested using agar well diffusion method and incubated for 24hrs at 37⁰C. After incubation, the plates were observed for any antimicrobial activity. On observation of the plates, there was no antimicrobial activity observed. Therefore, the urine-ash mixture, had no effect on Xcm implying that the mixture is not capable of controlling the spread of BXW, since it had no effect on the growth of the pathogen Xcm.