Introduction of Sugarcane Rust into the Americas and Its Spread to Florida

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Abstract
Sugarcane rust appeared in the Americas in 1978, probably as a result of transoeceanic transport of urediospores of Puccinia melanocephala from the Cameroons in West Africa to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean. Based on upper-air wind trajectories, urediospores could have arrived in the Dominican Republic 9 days after they were airborne over the Cameroons. After rapid disease development in the Dominican Republic on the very susceptible sugarcane cultivar B 4362, the rust spread in the Americas to Venezuela in the south and to Florida in the north by wind transport of urediospores.

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