OPENING ADDRESS

First of all it is my pleasure to welcome you most cordially at the 2nd International Symposium on Fireblight, which again has been organized by the Working Group on Fireblight of the International Society for Horticultural Science.

A welcome which I also extend to you on behalf of Dr. Jean Pierre Paulin, Angers, secretary of the Working Group, and Dr. Wolfgang Zeller, Kiel-Kitzeberg, principal organizer of our present meeting. It is, of course, impossible to welcome you all personally but allow me to make some exceptions.

Prof. Schuhmann, President of the Biologische Bundesanstalt für Land- und Forstwirtschaft, we are very pleased that you are here and that you are willing to address the meeting. It should be mentioned now that we approached you short after the 1^st meeting held in 1977 with the question whether you were willing to give your support to the proposal to organize the 2^(nd) meeting in the northwestern part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Your answer was clear. The result is evident. We thank you greatly for your willingness and for your successful efforts to intermediate in obtaining a grant from the Government of the F.R. Germany for organizing this meeting. May I consider you as the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture in this country and express as such our sincere gratitude to the Ministry for granting this meeting.

It is also a great pleasure to welcome you Dr. Mathys, Director-General of the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization, as vice-chairman of the ISHS Plant Protection Commission. In 1974 in Warsaw you played a key role in the establishment of the Working Group and we thank you for encouraging our working group since then. I recall how rewarding the co-operation with EPPO and you personally during the 1977-meeting has been.

The bacteria Erwinia amylovora which causes fireblight, was and still is a quarantine-organism. The meaning is clear. On the basis of EPPO-Recommendations on Quarantine Measures and the Plant Health Frontier Directive of the Council of the European Communities special attention is drawn to fireblight and rather strict measures to prevent further spread of the dangerous or potentially dangerous disease were developed. These measures have a great impact on plant trade between countries. Dr. Mathys, we are most grateful that you are willing to present an introductory paper on the quarantine aspects of fireblight.

Fireblight has been reported from some 13 countries outside the North American continent and Europe, but confirmation of the identification of the causal organism shortens the list to only 3 countries (New Zealand, Mexico, Chili).

During our 1^st meeting in 1977 fireblight was known to occur in 8 European countries. This number remained the same.

It is gratifying, but in my opinion also surprising that the pattern of distribution of fireblight has not undergone drastic changes since 1977 with one exception, namely the new focus in the southwest of France, discovered in 1978.

Saying that the limited further spread of fireblight since 1977 is due to the efforts of the Working Group has to be classified under exaggeration or overestimation. On the other hand, we should not slacken in our efforts to eradicate, suppress or contain fireblight! It is a very erratic disease which easily causes great economic losses and which also affects landscape, public parks, private gardens etc.

I sincerely hope that our present meeting will, by exchange of knowledge and experience, not only stimulate further research efforts but that our meeting really contributes to establish an effective closed front against fireblight.

Allow me to take this opportunity to honour Dr. Tom van der Zwet, Appalachian Fruit Research Station, Kearneysville, USA, for compiling world literature on fireblight in USDA Handbook 510, issued March 1979 but also for his highly appreciated work as editor of the Newsletter of our Working Group. Thank you very much, Tom on behalf of all members. Through you I want to thank those who provided Dr. Van der Zwet with material to include in the Newsletter. I call on you all to continue to co-operate for further newsletters.

Dr. Wolfgang Zeller: you, as the local organizer, certainly have been most occupied to organize this meeting. Those of you who did a similar job in the past, will best realize how much work is involved in organizing an international meeting. We are really greatly indebted to you for all your personal efforts. But the local organizer would be nowhere when he could not count on the co-operation of all who prepared a paper for this meeting. Therefore a similar vote of thanks for all speakers.

May I end this opening address with expressing the wish that all efforts of organizers, speakers and you to meet here will be compensated by having a fruitful and moreover pleasant meeting.

G.S Roosje
Chairman ISHS Working Group
on Fireblight