ISHS Acta Horticulturae 386: XVI International Symposium on Fruit Tree Virus diseases
VIRUSES AND CERTIFICATION OF OLIVE IN APULIA (SOUTHERN ITALY) |
| Authors: | G.P. Martelli, V. Savino, L. Catalano, B. Di Terlizzi, S. Sabanadzovic, N. Greco |
| Abstract:
Of the eight mechanically transmissible viruses known to infect olive (Olea europaea) in Italy, four occur in Apulia. All these viruses, together with a fungus (Verticillium dahliae) and a bacterium (Pseudomonas syringae pv. savastanoi) are included in the list of pathogens whose absence is required for entering a national voluntary certification scheme which was formally established in 1993 by a decree of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Although on the basis of available records the incidence of viral infections of olive in Apulia is barely appreciable (much lower than 1%), in view of the implementation of voluntary certification, surveys and testing for sorting out candidate mother trees with a sanitary status compatible with the requirements of the scheme, were initiated in 1990. A total of 310 symptomless plants belonging to 27 different oil and table cultivars were individually checked and found free from mechanically transmissible viruses. However, when twelve of these plants of eight different cultivars were analyzed for the presence of dsRNAs, siX proved to contain one or more dsRNA molecules. This result indicates that dsRNA technology may help in identifying virus-diseased olive trees, but also suggests that latent virus infections may be much more widespread than previously thought. | |
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