A research team with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agriculture Research Service (ARS) is working to save the world's supply of chocolate, the USDA announced recently.
Chocolate is made from the beans of cacao plants and up to 40 percent of the world's cacao beans are lost to plant disease each year, USDA reports in a March 15 announcement. The loss impacts the candy and confections industry as well as agriculture commodities like milk, sugar and nuts, according to the USDA.
"Demand for chocolate has been steadily increasing," USDA states in the report, "and there is a fear that one day cacao plant diseases may prevent enough cacao bean production to meet consumer need."
One of the worst threats to cacao plants is black pod rot disease, which cause cacao pods to rot and turn black within days, the USDA reports. Cacao plants are also susceptible to viruses; the cacao mild mosaic virus (CaMMV) causes abnormally small cacao pods and the loss of entire branches. ARS Research Plant Pathologist Alina Puig has detected CaMMV Puerto Rico in 2019 and then at a USDA-ARS quarantine greenhouse in Miami.
Puig said researchers did genetic analysis on the pathogen and were able to determine characteristics like survival, transmissability and adaptability in different locations.
"Because of this research we can now target specific ways to interrupt the pathogen's transmission to other cacao plants," Puig said in the report.
Both of the diseases can exist in the same geographical locations, so ARS scientists are studying how black pod rot and CaMMV might interact and if infection with one renders a cacao plant vulnerable to infection by the other, the report states.
USDA reports that ARS research teams in Florida, Maryland and Hawaii will continue to work with farmers and other scientists to "solve this agricultural challenge and ensure the commercial viability of future cacao crops."
"Although diseases reduce the supply of cacao beans available for chocolate production," USDA states in the report, "scientists are helping to minimize their impact by learning more about the organisms and developing tests to detect them."
