FOREWORD

Since it began its operations in 1971, the International Potato

Center (CIP) has been committed to providing training in potato
production activities to national potato programs in developing
countries. Training in virology has been the most frequently
requested activity due to its importance for seed potato
production. Because control of virus diseases is only possible
by preventive rather than curative measures, deep knowledge
of virus entities and ways to detect them is instrumental for their
control.

Over the years, CIP’s Virology Unit has developed a profound

knowledge on the viruses that affect potatoes, and adapted or
designed advanced methods for their ultrasensitive detection.
Knowledge on these techniques has been transferred to
programs in developing countries through individual training or
virology courses, and the technical details provided to trainees
as oral presentations or brief written outlines. Aware of the need
for a permanent source of information, the virology staff
compiled, improved, and edited this manual, which describes all
the techniques that our laboratories use, and that were tested
thousands of times in developing-country laboratories. In no
way was there an attempt to compete with the information
available in textbooks or journals. This manual aims to
complement information existing in the specialized literature
with techniques or modifications that proved successful in our
labs. In addition, compiling this information as loose sheets in a
binder makes it easy to update the techniques, thereby
reducing the need for frequent revised editions.

The subject matter covers a wide variety of techniques for virus

identification, characterization, and detection, and includes
techniques for virus control. The staff members who participated
in the preparation of this manual were led by Upali Jayasinghe,
and special recognition and acknowledgment are hereby also
given to K.V. Raman, Charlotte Lizárraga, Christian Delgado,
Segundo Fuentes, Ciro Barrera, Ernesto Velit, José Rocha,
Maddalena Querci, Ida Bartolini, Miguel Cervantes, Miguel
Espejo, Vidal Lazarte, Carlos Chuquillanqui, Josefina
Nakashima, Ilse Balbo, Marco Antonio Meza, Jaime Arellano,
Ana Panta, Ali Golmirzaie, Ana Hurtado, and Patricia Gil. All
members who participated in the preparation of this manual
thank Dr. Gianinna Brignetti for designing most of the
illustrations.

Thanks are also extended to CIP’s Training and Conferences

Unit and Communications Unit for their support and
collaboration during the production of this manual.

Finally, the Virology Unit would like to dedicate this manual to

the late Dr. W. J. Hooker, a pathologist who helped pave the
way to great achievements in virology.

L.F. Salazar
Head, Crop Protection Department

U. Jayasinghe
Leader, Project 5: Propagation of Planting Materials