In 1974, Peanut Clump disease was present only in two very localized places in West Africa: Area of Bambey in Senegal and one agricultural research station in Burkina Faso. Following a number of surveys made in the 80s up to 1991, Peanut Clump Virus (PCV) was detected in C么te d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger and Benin. In Senegal, the virus is now widely distributed from the Senegal river to the frontier of Gambia. Transmission of PCV through seeds is partly responsible for the increased spread of the disease. Abundance of PCV in agricultural research stations, or in seed-gardens shows the importance of seed transmission. Existence of infected soils is another factor of dissemination of the virus. Symptoms induced by PCV in a given variety of groundnut vary from classical stunting with small dark green leaves, to normal sized plants with different light leaf symptoms such as line pattern, specking and a great variety of other foliar symptoms. Therefore, PCV is very difficult to diagnose in the field
