ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Agron.
Sec. Disease Management
Widespread occurrence of cassava torradovirus 2 and cassava frogskin associated oryzavirus characterized the 2020-2023 outbreak of severe Cassava Frogskin Disease in the Orinoquia region of Colombia
Provisionally accepted
Jaime Marín1
Edgar Mauricio Rico-Sierra1
Angela Maria Vargas Berdugo1Camila Sierra1Laura López1
Amparo Rosero1*
Ana Maria Leiva Sandoval2Jenyfer Jimenez2
Wilmer J. Cuellar2- 1Colombian Corporation for Agricultural Research (AGROSAVIA), Mosquera, Colombia
- 2Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture, Bogotá, Colombia
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Severe root symptoms of Cassava Frogskin Disease (CFSD) remerged in Colombia during 2020-2023 significantly impacting cassava yield in Orinoquia, one of the main cassava producing regions of Colombia. Using a finite population sampling strategy (ca. 136 fields with ~30 observations per field = 4620 observations), field surveys in the main cassava-producing provinces showed high prevalence values of severe root symptoms. The upper limits of prevalence values in each region were observed in Fuente de Oro (66.67%), Granada (63.33%), Vista Hermosa (56.67%), Puerto Lleras (46.67%), and El Castillo (23.33%). Molecular diagnostics of a subsample (n=149) identified torradovirus species 2 (CsTLV-2) and the oryzavirus CsFSaV as the most frequent pathogens (27.63% and 57.89%, respectively) in this region. The overall prevalence of CsTLV was 27.63%. Notably, among the torradoviruses, CsTLV-2 (100%) showed a clear dominance over CsTLV-1 (9.52%). In contrast, samples collected in the Department of Cauca—where the disease has been endemic and reported since the early 1970s—exhibited a distinct torradovirus profile. The total prevalence of CsTLV was 46.58%, with CsTLV-1 and CsTLV-2 detected at frequencies of 52.94% and 85.29%, respectively. In contrast, the incidence of CsFSaV was approximately threefold lower than that observed in Orinoquia. It is noteworthy that the diversity of torradoviruses was higher in Cauca and that in Orinoquia CsTLV-2 showed characteristics consistent with a recent population expansion. Altogether, the data presented here indicate that the 2020-2023 outbreak of CFSD was characterized by a high prevalence of severe roots symptoms and widespread infections by CsTLV-2 and the oryzavirus CsFSaV, in comparison with other pathogens detected in the analyzed samples.
Keywords: Cassava frogskin disease, CsFSaV, CsTLV-1, CsTLV-2, genetic diversity
Received: 21 Nov 2025; Accepted: 02 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Marín, Rico-Sierra, Vargas Berdugo, Sierra, López, Rosero, Leiva Sandoval, Jimenez and Cuellar. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amparo Rosero
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.