ISHS Acta Horticulturae 704: X International Workshop on Fireblight
SEVERE OUTBREAK OF FIRE BLIGHT ON QUINCE IN TURKEY |
| Authors: | H. Saygili, Y. Aysan, M. Mirik, F. Sahin |
| Keywords: | Erwinia amylovora, Cydonia vulgaris, identification |
| Abstract:
In the late spring and summer of 2003, severe fire blight symptoms were observed on quince trees (Cydonia vulgaris cultivars Esme and Ekmek) in different orchards in Turkey. The disease had spread to all quince-growing areas located in the Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara, and Middle Anatolia regions (Adana, Nigde, Konya, Antalya, Isparta, Afyon, Izmir, Manisa, Denizli, Bursa, Sakarya and Amasya) of Turkey. Nearly all of the trees in the orchards visited were infected. Disease incidence was approximately 80-100% with all trees in Sakarya city affected, particularly the cv. Esme. The characteristic symptoms of the disease were blighted leaves and shoots, but no fruit symptoms were observed. A systematic survey was conducted to study the distribution of the disease. Diseased leaves and shoots were collected from the various localities surveyed. Bacteria isolated from the diseased samples consistently formed levan type colonies on Sucrose Nutrient Agar medium. Twenty-eight presumptive bacterial strains were characterized on the basis of morphological, physiological, biochemical, and pathogenicity tests. All of the strains were identified as Erwinia amylovora with similarity indices of 60 to 85% based on fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) analysis in the Sherlock Microbial Identification System (Microbial ID, Newark, DE, USA). This is the first serious outbreak of fire blight recorded on quince in Turkey. | |
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