A polymerase chain reaction assay was developed which allows early detection of cacao swollen shoot virus (CSSV) in DNA extracts from cacao plantlets agroinoculated with the Togolese isolate Agou 1. The primers used were derived from badnavirus conserved sequences and nucleic acid was extracted with the Plant DNeasy extraction kit (Qiagen). CSSV genome was detectable between 6 and 20 days after inoculation. The first leaf symptoms appeared after 4 weeks and the first shoot swelling symptoms after 8 weeks.