Bacterial blight of cotton is an important and potentially destructive bacterial disease. It is caused by the bacterium Xanthomonas campestris pv malvacearum and it may cause the yield losses in 10% or even more. In the summer of 2006, this disease occurred in a 500 acre cotton seed productive farm in Bolivar County (Delta Region), Mississippi. For cotton production and breeding, it is especially important to identify the bacterial blight races and/or to report new race(s) if any, thus, a race identification research was conducted.

Infected cotton bolls were collected from the infested field in Bolivar County, and the bacteria from the boll tissue were isolated and cultured on PCDA media. Five isolates have been obtained and race identified using the host differentials planted in greenhouse.