FOREWORD AND PREFACE

FOREWORD

It's now 50 years after the first international collaboration in the research on fruit tree viruses. In 1954, three North American scientists, pioneers in this field of virology (L.C. Cochran, Gilbert Stout and Maurice Welsh), visited Europe and met in Switzerland with European scientists (Bovey, Meijneke, Mulder, Posnette...) working in the same field. This meeting, since then called the first symposium, led to the foundation of an ‘European Committee for Cooperation in Fruit Tree Virus Research', which was the organizer of subsequent symposia. Participants of the 9th Symposium (East Malling, UK, 1973) agreed to join the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS) as the Working Group on Virus Diseases of Fruit Trees. Later on, the Working Group on Virus Diseases of Small Fruits joined them, due to the fact that many scientists worked on viruses from both groups of species. Members of the Organizing Committee would like to thank every participant for making the effort in coming to the Symposium in Valencia and for contributing to its success.

Gerardo Llácer
Convener

PREFACE

The papers contained in this volume of Acta Horticulturae report the Proceedings of the XIXth International Symposium on Virus and Virus-like Diseases of Temperate Fruit Crops: Fruit Tree Diseases. Keynote speakers and authors of selected contributed oral and poster presentations were given the opportunity to submit a manuscript for publication.
These manuscripts were reviewed by the symposium Editor and members of the Editorial Board. Only those papers judged suitable for publication following the authors consideration of reviewer suggestions appear in this volume of Acta Horticulturae.
The ISHS acknowledges and appreciates the contribution of all editors and reviewers. They have made a significant contribution to improving the quality of this publication.

The ISHS Board of Directors