The Pink Disease is caused by the fungus Erythricium salmonicolor (Berk & Broome) Burdsall. It attacks broad hosts such as cocoa, coffee, citrus Eucalyptus spp. and Acasia spp. An outbreak of similar disease symptoms on cocoa trees in the Eastern region of Ghana has been a threat to the cocoa industry. The causal organism of the disease in the Eastern region has not been properly identified. A study was therefore conducted to confirm the causal organism as E. salmonicolor and also determine the genetic variability among the isolates collected. All the isolates produced salmon-pink fluffy mycelia with concentric zones and regular margins on PDA and MEA. The hyphae were hyaline, thin-walled, joined to each other and with clamp-connections. Amplification of the ITS region of isolates of E. salmonicolor using primers produced a 750 bp which is the expected fragment size. The isolates varied genetically with mean similarity of 55%. Isolates from Saamang, Bunso and Osino related by 78% whiles Isolates from Osino and Bunso clustered together at 88% making them the most related among all the isolates.

Keywords: : Cocoa, encrustation, Erythricium salmonicolor, pink disease, salmon-pink