The disease -- known as "Panama disease" or "Fusarium wilt" -- has already been spreading from Asia to different parts of Australia, Africa and the Middle East. It particularly affects the Cavendish banana, which is the fruit that consumers in the West are used to eat. An earlier lineage of the Panama disease wiped out what had been the famous banana variety in the 1960s, the Gros Michel. Producers are ensuing adopted the Cavendish banana, which was allowed as an inferior product but was resistant to the disease. The Gros Michel banana, also called the "Big Mike" banana, was the dominant banana kind exported and consumed in the United States until around 1960. When a fungus caused Panama Disease insinuated banana plantations, it nearly aweary
