Tobacco can be infected with a large number of viruses and some of them are of great economic importance. Since the control of virus diseases is very complicated it makes the significance of tobacco viruses even greater. Although there are no direct chemical measures against viruses and there are no possibilities to cure diseased plants, it is still possible to control the diseases efficiently. In this respect good knowledge of biology and epidemiology of viruses is essential. There is a whole set of measures mostly preventive, in connection with the primary and secondary means of virus spread. That is why it is important to know basic virus characteristics, inoculum sources and the ways of transmission of viruses in nature described in this paper. Even though the choice of control strategy depends on the specific virus, there are some general principles shown in this article. The paper specially focuses on tobacco mosaic virus as the most important virus disease of tobacco in our environment. All sanitary measures which have to be strictly conducted in transplant and crop production have been specified. Significance of the use of resistant cultivars and efficient crop rotation were stressed. The possibilities of biological control measures as well as development of molecular strategies which result in transgenic tobacco plants resistant to tobacco mosaic virus, have also been demonstrated.Duvan je domaćin velikog broja virusa. Neki od njih su prouzrokovači značajnih ekonomskih šteta. Zbog veoma složene kontrole virusnih oboljenja značaj virusa duvana je još veći. Iako protiv virusa nema direktnih hemijskih mera borbe i nema mogućnosti izlečenja zaraženih biljaka, ipak se može i mora sprovoditi kontrola oboljenja. Postoji čitav niz mera, pre svega preventivnih, koje su vezane za načine primarnog i sekundarnog širenja virusa. Zbog toga je neophodno poznavanje osnovnih karakteristika virusa izvora inokuluma i načina širenja virusa u prirodi. Mada izbor određene strategije kontrole zavisi od određenog virusa, postoje i opšti principi koji su izneti u ovom radu. U tom kontekstu je, u ovom radu, izneto šta je sve potrebno znati o virusu mozaika duvana kako bi se smanjila njegova štetnost u proizvodnji duvana. Pored toga, navedene su i one sanitarne mere kojih se treba strogo pridržavati i u proizvodnji rasada i pri gajenju useva duvana na otvorenom polju. Osim toga, ukazano je na značaj korišćenja otpornih sorti i primene plodoreda. Dat je pregled mogućnosti kontrole oboljenja koje pružaju biološke mere borbe, kao i razvijanje molekularnih strategija stvaranjem transgenih biljaka otpornih na virus mozaika duvana
