Portugal pede medidas de emergência para travar ameaça de bactéria nas oliveiras
Bactéria que já destruiu milhares de oliveiras em Itália e ameaça plantações em Portugal, Espanha, Grécia e França também ataca vinhas e citrinos. Ainda não há tratamento para travar a 'Xylella fastidiosa'.
Comissão Europeia prevê aplicar medidas mais restritas para fazer face ao surto da bactéria 'Xylella fastidiosa', que já destruiu milhares de oliveiras na região de Apúlia, no Sul de Itália, foi hoje anunciado.
O comité fitossanitário da Comissão Europeia volta a reunir-se nos próximos dias 27 e 28, adiantou hoje o porta-voz do executivo comunitário para a Saúde, Enrico Brivio, devendo ser, então, decididas medidas para combater a bactéria, nomeadamente o abate de oliveiras.
A França - que com Portugal e Espanha defende medidas de emergência - impôs restrições à importação de plantas vivas da Apúlia.
Brivio sublinhou que um Estado-membro pode decidir medidas temporárias enquanto se aguarda decisão de Bruxelas, lembrando ainda que o surto está confinado à provincia de Lecce, na Apúlia.
Além das oliveiras, a 'xylella fastidiosa' também ataca vinhas e citrinos e, para já, ainda não foi encontrado tratamento.
Espanha e Itália são os países que mais azeite produzem na União Europeia, numa lista que inclui França, Portugal e Grécia como outros importantes produtores.
| Xylella fastidiosa - Boletim Técnico
Em 21 de outubro de 2013, a Itália informou os outros Estados-Membros e a Comissão da presença da Xylella fastidiosano seu território, em duas áreas distintas da província Lecce, na região de Apúlia. Posteriormente foram identificados outros dois focos diferentes na mesma província. A presença desta bactéria foi confirmada relativamente a várias espécies de vegetais, incluindo Olea europaea L., Prunus amygdalus Batsch, Nerium oleander L. e Quercus sp. L.. Tendo em conta a natureza do organismo especificado, é provável que se propague ampla e rapidamente. Assim, a fim de assegurar que não se propague em Portugal, é necessário tomar medidas de imediato tendo por base a informação contida neste Boletim Técnico SAFSV BT/01 -2014”
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With the devastation of olive trees in southern Italy, European agricultural experts are gathering in Brussels to develop an action plan to save the continent’s olive trees.
The meeting was called after leaf scorch (xylella fastidiosa) was found in four ornamental coffee bushes at Rungis, an international food market on the outskirts of Paris, a fortnight ago.
The plants had been imported from Honduras via the Netherlands, the French ministry of agriculture said.
This set fears alight that the insect-spread bacterium could start to wipe out the olive groves in southern France and Corsica. Thousands of hectares have already been destroyed in southern Italy.
The French government is demanding measures in Europe to try to prevent the spread of the disease, including widespread testing for the bacterium and common rules for destroying and burning infected plants and trees.
The French ministry of agriculture has banned imports of certain plants from contaminated regions of Italy and south America.
It also has called for funds such as Portugal and Spain have had. “European funds are available in the event of plant diseases. In 2012, Europe made €12 million available to save threatened pine trees in Portugal and Spain. We’re confident there’ll be a rapid decision, everyone wants a solution,” an official said.
The xylella fastidiosa bacterium has been known to attack some 300 plant species, including fruit trees such as almond and plums. It blocks water movement in plants, making leaves and then whole branches fall off.
It devastated vineyards in the US in the 1990s and hit citrus trees as well.
The French well remember the ‘great wine blight’ in the 1800s when the phylloxera aphid decimated vineyards and paralysed the wine industry.
France’s olive industry turns over €100,000 annually while its wine exports are worth €7.6 billion with nearly 56,000 people employed.
Tragically, there is no known treatment of the disease or ways known to protect plants.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that focusing on the trade of plants intended for planting and on the presence of infective insects in plant consignments would be the most effective ways of limiting the spread of the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa that has recently been detected in Southern Italy, the first outbreak of its kind in the European Union.
Transmitted by certain types of sap-sucking hopper insects, the bacteria X. fastidiosa, has been identified in the current disease outbreak that has affected 8000 hectares of olive trees in the Puglia region of Southern Italy. The bacteria can be hosted in a very broad range of plants including almond, peach, plum, apricot, grapevines, citrus, coffee and olive as well as oak, elm, Ginkgo and sunflower. Importantly, plants can carry the bacteria without showing signs of disease. X.fastidiosa is regulated as a harmful organism in the European Union (EU), whose introduction into, and spread within, all Member States is banned.
In light of the current outbreak, the European Commission requested EFSA to provide urgent scientific advice outlining the list of known plant hosts, identifying the different ways that infected plant species and carrier insects could enter the EU as well as identifying and evaluating possible preventative measures.
Plant health experts at EFSA have concluded that X. fastidiosa has a very broad range of known host plants in the EU, including many grown for agricultural production as well as indigenous wild species common in Europe. Additionally, there are a large number of species that could potentially be infected by the bacteria but have never been exposed, making it difficult to establish what the likely impact would be. Importantly, the sap-sucking hopper insects found in the EU that could potentially carry the disease are likely to have different feeding habits and patterns.
As the only natural means for spreading X. fastidiosa is by the sap-sucking hopper insects that generally can fly short distances of up to 100 metres, movement of infected plants for planting is the most efficient way for long-distance dispersal of X. fastidiosa. In addition, the transport of the insects that carry the bacteria in plant shipments and consignments has been identified as a concern.
The main source of X. fastidiosa into the EU is therefore trade and thereafter the movement of plants intended for planting. Other potential sources of infection were assessed including fruit, wood, cut flowers, seeds and ornamental foliage. However, these were considered either negligible or low in terms of potential pathways for introduction of the bacteria.
There is no record of successful eradication of X. fastidiosa once it has been established outdoors. EFSA therefore recommends that preventative strategies for containment of outbreaks should focus on the two main routes of infection (plants for planting and infective insects in plant consignments) and be based on an integrated system approach.
Following this rapid assessment, EFSA’s Plant Health Panel will conduct a comprehensive assessment of the risk posed by this bacteria Xylella fastidiosa to the EU crops and plants.
- Statement of EFSA on host plants, entry and spread pathways and risk reduction options for Xylella fastidiosaWells et al.
Notes to editors:
The introduction and spread of plant pests, such as fungi, bacteria, viruses and insects, among food crops is a serious threat that can have far-reaching economic, social and environmental consequences. Plant pests are often introduced to areas previously unaffected through plant imports.
In Europe, protective measures against the introduction of new plant pests are based on regulatory controls on the movement of plants and plant products. The evaluation of the probability of plant pests being introduced and then spreading in an area and the assessment of the potential consequences help inform the decision making on protective measures. The key tasks of EFSA’s Plant Health (PLH) Panel are to assess the risk of exotic plant pests (from non EU countries) using a wide-range of specialist expertise and the most current scientific knowledge available in order to provide scientific advice to the European Commission.
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
[Courtesy of EPPO Gallery*]
EPPO Gallery. Symptoms of quick decline (complesso del disseccamento rapido dell’olivo) observed in Puglia (IT) on olive trees. Xylella fastidiosa, Phaeoacremonium spp., Phaemoniella spp., and Zeuzera pyrina have been found in association with this disease.
*Courtesy: Donato Boscia, Istituto di Virologia Vegetale del CNR, UOS, Bari (IT) - Franco Nigro, Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Bari (IT) - Antonio Guario, Plant Protection Service, Regione Puglia (IT)
*Courtesy: Donato Boscia, Istituto di Virologia Vegetale del CNR, UOS, Bari (IT) - Franco Nigro, Dipartimento di Scienze del Suolo, della Pianta e degli Alimenti, Università degli Studi di Bari (IT) - Antonio Guario, Plant Protection Service, Regione Puglia (IT)
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/press/news/131126.htm
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