West Africa battles root crop 'Ebola'

ABIDJAN, Cote d'Ivoire - Researchers from half a dozen states in West Africa have joined together in a battle against what one expert calls a root crop "Ebola" - a viral disease that could wreck the region's staple food and condemn millions to hunger.

Their enemy: cassava brown streak disease, a virus that strikes cassava, also called manioc, which in some of the region's countries is consumed by as many as 80 percent of the population.

The root-rotting disease was first discovered in Tanzania eight decades ago and is steadily moving westward.