First report of Meloidogyne mali in Belgium
The NPPO of Belgium recently informed the EPPO Secretariat of the first record of Meloidogyne mali (EPPO A2 List) on its territory. In the EPPO region, M. mali has been detected in several sites in France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (EPPO RS 2014/102, 2017/043 and 2019/081), where elm (Ulmus spp.) trees had been planted as part of a breeding programme against Dutch elm disease. In Belgium, potentially infested elm trees had been planted at one experimental site of the Research Institute for Nature and Forest in the province of East Flanders. During a research project (Suwanngam & Wesemael, 2019), root samples collected from these elm trees were found to be infested with M. mali in April 2018. Infested plants showed typical root galls, and the identity of the nematode was confirmed by morphological and molecular (PCR, sequencing) methods. Nucleotide sequences were compared with those from other related Meloidogyne species and shared the closest identity with an accession of M. mali from Japan.
The pest status of Meloidogyne mali in Belgium is officially declared as: Present, few occurrences: found in one experimental site related to the Dutch elm disease [resistance] breeding program.
Sources
NPPO of Belgium (2020-01).
Suwanngam A, Wesemael WML (2019) First report of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne mali infecting elm trees in Belgium. New Disease Reports 40, 16. http://dx.doi.org/10.5197/j.2044-0588.2019.040.016