New data on quarantine pests and pests of the EPPO Alert List
By searching through the literature, the EPPO Secretariat has extracted the following new data concerning quarantine pests and pests included (or formerly included) on the EPPO Alert List, and indicated in bold the situation of the pest concerned using the terms of ISPM no. 8.
- New records
During surveys for fruit flies conducted in Bangladesh in 2013-2018, Bactrocera carambolae (Diptera: Tephritidae – EPPO A1 List) was first detected in traps. The presence of Bactrocera latifrons (Diptera: Tephritidae – EPPO A1 List), and Dacus ciliatus (Diptera: Tephritidae – EPPO A2 List) in Bangladesh was also confirmed (LeBlanc et al., 2019). Present, no detail.
In India, Blitopertha orientalis (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae - EPPO A1 List) is considered as an important pest of rose cultivation in Wayanad district (Kerala). The beetles damage flower buds and leaves. The authors also mentioned damage on rose flowers due to Popillia japonica (Coleoptera: Rutelidae – EPPO A2 List) (Smitha et al., 2017). Present, no detail.
In Thailand, Columnea latent viroid (Pospiviroid, CLVd) causes damage to tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) seed production. It is also reported as damaging in plants of Solanum stramoniifolium (Bhuvitarkorn et al., 2019). Present, no details.
The NPPO of Austria recently informed the EPPO Secretariat of the first record of Corythucha arcuata (Hemiptera: Tingidae - formerly EPPO Alert List) on its territory. During a survey, the pest was found on Quercus trees in southeastern Styria and southern Burgenland at 21 locations in the districts of Hartberg-Fürstenfeld, Leibnitz, Südoststeiermark, Güssing and Jennersdorf (NPPO of Austria, 2019).
The pest status of Corythucha arcuata in Austria is officially declared as: Present.
In France, Thrips parvispinus ((Thysanoptera: Thripidae – formerly EPPO Alert List) has recently been reported for the first time. This polyphagous species of Asian origin has been found in two sites on Mandevilla plants in the Southwestern part of the country. It is also noted that its control is difficult (Anonymous, 2019). Present, no details.
In Ghana, ‘rasta’ is a virus-like disease of unknown etiology affecting tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants. Symptoms include stunting; epinasty, crumpling and chlorosis of leaves; and necrosis of leaf veins, petioles and stems. Leaf samples with rasta symptoms were collected from 17 commercial tomato fields in Ghana in October 2012 and were shown to be infected with Potato spindle tuber viroid (Pospiviroid, PSTVd – EPPO A2 List) and Tomato apical stunt viroid (Pospiviroid, TASVd – formerly EPPO Alert List). PSTVd and TASVd isolates were seed-associated and possibly seed transmitted. The authors noted that, in Mali, rasta-like symptoms in tomato plants were associated with Columnea latent viroid (Batuman et al., 2019). Present, no details.
In Ecuador, Xylosandrus compactus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae - EPPO Alert List) was found in primary and secondary forests together with Xylosandrus morigerus (Martínez et al., 2019). Present, no details.
In China, Acidovorax citrulli (EPPO A1 List) was first observed in Jiangxi in July 2017 causing severe fruit blotch on watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) (Yang et al., 2019).
In Canada, Heterodera glycines (EPPO A2 List) was first reported in Ontario in 1988, and then in Quebec in 2014 (EPPO RS 2014/216). It was recently reported from Manitoba. Surveys conducted in 2017 and 2019 detected it in 4 out of 106 soybean fields and 4 out of 18 municipalities sampled across all surveys. Cyst populations found in these 4 fields were extremely low and consistent with recent establishment of this pest (Manitoba Agriculture, 2019).
In China, Meloidogyne enterolobii (EPPO A2 List) was found in June 2017 in a field of Gardenia jasminoides grown for medicinal purposes in Hezhou city, Guangxi province. Affected plants showed stunting, leaf yellowing and numerous root knots. Inoculation trials confirmed the pathogenicity of M. enterolobii to G. jasminoides (Lu et al., 2019).
In Italy, Myzus mumecola (Hemiptera: Aphididae) was detected for the first time in 2016 in apricot (Prunus armeniaca) orchards in Emilia-Romagna (EPPO RS 2018/090). The NPPO of Italy recently informed the Secretariat that this aphid is not considered of phytosanitary concern according to a national Pest Risk Analysis. No phytosanitary measures were applied and the infestations were controlled with available pesticides (NPPO of Italy, 2019-09).
The pest status of Myzus mumecola in Italy is officially declared as: Present, only in some parts of the Member State concerned.
In Germany Thrips setosus (Thysanoptera: Thripidae – formerly EPPO Alert List) was first found in 2015 near Hamburg and later in other landers (see EPPO RS 2018/095). As it is considered widespread in neighbouring EU Member States and no phytosanitary measures are taken, the NPPO of Germany considers that the thrips is probably also widespread in many areas of Germany. Therefore, phytosanitary measures are no longer taken (NPPO of Germany, 2019-10).
In France, Xylosandrus crassiusculus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae - EPPO Alert List) was first found in Alpes-Maritimes (EPPO RS 2014/185 and 2017/028). Subsequently, it was also found in Occitanie region (Gignac, Hérault department in 2018), and in Nouvelle-Aquitaine region (Guiche, Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in 2018 and Saint-Michel-sur-Adour, Landes department in 2019) (Roques et al., 2019).
In France, Xylosandrus compactus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae - EPPO Alert List) is present along the Southern coast, in Var and Alpes-Maritimes departments (Roques et al., 2019).
In Italy, Xylosandrus compactus (Coleoptera: Scolytidae - EPPO Alert List) occurs on the mainland (EPPO RS 2013/130 and 2017/031) but it is reported for the first time from Sicilia where it attacks not only twigs but also large branches and trunks of carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua). Up to now, this insect was considered to only infest twigs and small branches (Guliuzzo et al., 2019a). Studies on flight capacities estimated that the insect can spread over more than 8 km in a flying season (Guliuzzo et al., 2019b).
- Eradication
On 2018-10-19, USDA officially declared the pink bollworm, Pectinophora gossypiella (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), eradicated from all commercial cotton-producing areas in the continental United States (USDA, 2019) and all remaining restrictions on the movement of cotton were removed. The pest was first detected in Texas in 1917 and quarantine regulations had been applied for more than 60 years in Southern USA.
The pest status of Pectinophora gossypiella in the USA is officially declared as: Absent, pest eradicated from cotton-production areas of the continental states.
Sources
Anonymous (2019) Ce qu'il faut retenir. Thrips. Bulletin de Santé du Végétal. Grand Sud-Ouest. Horticulture / Pépinière, nos 1 and 6. Batuman O, Çiftçi ÖC, Osei MK, Miller SA, Rojas MR, Gilbertson RL (2019) Rasta disease of tomato in Ghana is caused by the pospiviroids Potato spindle tuber viroid and Tomato apical stunt viroid. Plant Disease 103(7), 1525-1535. Bhuvitarkorn S, Klinkong S and Reanwarakorn K (2019) Enhancing Columnea latent viroid detection using reverse transcription loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP). International Journal of Agricultural Technology 15(2), 215-228. Gugliuzzo A, Criscione G, Siscaro G, Russo A, Tropea Garzia G (2019) First data on the flight activity and distribution of the ambrosia beetle Xylosandrus compactus (Eichhoff) on carob trees in Sicily. EPPO Bulletin 49(2), 340–351. https://doi.org/10.1111/epp.12564 Gugliuzzo A, Criscione G, Tropea Garzia G (2019) Unusual behavior of Xylosandrus compactus (Coleoptera: Scolytinae) on carob trees in a Mediterranean environment. Insects 10, 82. DOI: https://doi.org/doi:10.3390/insects10030082 LeBlanc L, Hossain MA, Doorenweerd C, Khan SA, Momen M, San Jose M, Rubinoff R (2019) Six years of fruit fly surveys in Bangladesh: A new species, 33 new country records and discovery of the highly invasive Bactrocera carambolae (Diptera, Tephritidae). ZooKeys 876, 87-109. https://zookeys.pensoft.net/article/38096/ Lu XH, Solangi GS, Li DJ, Huang JL, Zhang Y, Liu ZM (2019) First report of root-knot nematode Meloidogyne enterolobii on Gardenia jasminoides in China. Plant Disease 103(6), p 1434. Manitoba Agriculture (2019) Recent field findings of soybean cyst nematode in Manitoba. September 16, 2019. https://www.manitobapulse.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/soybean-cyst-nematode-notice.pdf Martínez M, Cognato AI, Guachambala M, Boivin T (2019) Bark and ambrosia beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) diversity in natural and plantation forests in Ecuador. Environmental Entomology 48(3), 603–613. https://doi.org/10.1093/ee/nvz037 NPPO of Austria (2019-10). NPPO of Germany (2019-10). NPPO of Italy (2019-09). Roques A, Bellanger R, Daubrée JB, Ducatillion C, Urvois T, Auger-Rozenberg MA (2019) Les scolytes exotiques : une menace pour le maquis. Phytoma 727, 16-21. Smitha R, Rajendran P, Sandhya PT, Aparna VS, Rajees PC (2017) Insect pest complex of rose at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Ambalavayal, Wayanad. Acta Horticulturae 1165, 39-44. ISHS 2017. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2017.1165.6 USDA (2018) Eradication of Pink bollworm https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/usda-pink-bollworm-proclamation.pdf USDA (2019) Plant protection and quarantine: helping U.S. agriculture thrive - Across the country and around the world. Annual report 2018. 44 pp. https://www.aphis.usda.gov/publications/plant_health/report-ppq-2018.pdf Yang YQ, Lan B, Sun Q, Chen HF, Huang YH, Chen J, Huang JH, Guo YH, Li XM (2019) First report of Acidovorax avenae subsp. citrulli causing bacterial fruit blotch of watermelon in Jiangxi, China. Plant Disease 103 (9), 2468-2468. |