The two main objectives of this research programme are the development of an early diagnosis of CSSV and the application of artificial and reliable inoculation technologies to screen with precision the CSSV resistance of cocoa planting material. A polymerase chain reaction assay (PCR) has been developed to detect CSSV in extracts from cacao plantlets agroinoculated with the Togolese isolate Agou 1. Primers derived from conserved badnavirus sequences were used as well as a Qiagen extraction kit. The presence of CSSV could be detected between 6 days and 20 days after inoculation. The first symptoms appeared after 4 weeks and the first swelling symptoms after 8 weeks. We now have to consider the molecular variability of the CSSV to validate this result with other CSSV isolates representative of the endemic area.