SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - El Nino may achieve what mouthwashes and breath mints have tried in vain to do — reduce the incidence of garlic breath. Garlic experts said that this winter‘s drenching El Nino rains have given rise to a rare fungus that will likely destroy at least a third of the garlic crop in California, the largest U.S. producer of the bulbous herb. The almost continuous rains that struck northern California in January and February created ideal conditions for garlic rust disease, an orange-coloured fungus that prevents the bulbs from developing but that is not toxic to humans. Don Christopher, president of the Christopher Ranch in Gilroy, California, the largest shipper of fresh garlic in the

United States, estimated that the fungus would reduce the size of California‘s crop by about 35 percent. „It does occur from time to time, but it never has caused an economic loss like this year,“ said Steven Koiko, a plant pathologist with the University of California cooperative extension service in Salinas, California. Koiko said he had seen some fields that had suffered 100 percent losses as a result of the fungus.