ISHS Acta Horticulturae 896: XII International Workshop on Fire Blight
ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING OF PANTOEA AGGLOMERANS BIOCONTROL STRAIN E325 IN SWISS ORCHARDS |
| Authors: | A. Braun-Kiewnick, A. Lehmann, T.H.M. Smits, B. Duffy, T. Dreo |
| Keywords: | apple, biological control, Erwinia amylovora, real-time PCR, quantification Pantoea agglomerans |
| DOI: | 10.17660/ActaHortic.2011.896.61 |
| Abstract:
Pantoea agglomerans E325 is an effective fire blight control strain commercialized in the USA and Canada. In order to lay the basis for potential Swiss/EU registration, we evaluated environmental behaviour at two orchard sites in 2009-2010. Three applications using low-drift sprayers gave excellent flower coverage (80-100%). However, initial population growth was relatively low within two weeks post application due to cold wet spring weather. Dissemination beyond treated trees was thus restricted to just a few trees, indicating low risk of exposure to non-target environments. Using selective plating E325 rapidly declined from 7.5 log10 CFU g-1 soil to undetectable in a worst-case tank spill experiment, demonstrating low potential for impact in soil environments. Low populations on leaves also decreased rapidly with no residual populations detected 1-2 weeks post final application. E325 was detected on fruits at harvest only in small amounts at the calyx area indicating low potential for consumer exposure. In 2010, monitoring was enhanced with newly developed TaqMan® quantitative PCR methods for specific detection of E325 and native Pantoea agglomerans. | |
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