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First Report of Citrus tristeza virus in Greece

Large-scale surveys of Citrus spp. for the presence of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) by the Ministry of Agriculture in Greece began in 1995. Over 26,000 trees have been tested by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and immunoprinting (2). In summer 2000, the first CTV-infected sweet orange cv. Lane Late tree grafted on CTV-tolerant Carrizo citrange was found in Argolis County, Peloponnese. This tree belonged to a batch of CAC propagation material (20 trees) illegally introduced from Spain in 1994, which was subsequently traced and found to be infected (45%). A follow-up search of trees grafted with the above material was undertaken in the two concerned regions (Argolis and Chania-Crete), and more than 3,500 trees have been removed. Extensive surveys continue to identify and destroy new infections. Few cases (15 of 16,800) of natural transmission to cultivars other than cv. Lane Late have been found. All of these have been close to the initially infected trees in the Argolis area. Surveys in spring 2001 were extended to certified propagation material of Clemenpons mandarin on Carrizo citrange imported from Spain, and 7 of 1,038 plants were infected (0.64%). The virus was successfully graft-transmitted to sweet orange cv. Madame Vinous and sweet lime seedlings, where it was identified by immunoprinting and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (1). Mild vein clearing symptoms appeared on both indicators. Vein clearing on sweet lime was also accompanied by leaf cupping. To our knowledge, this is the first report of CTV in Greece.

References: (1) A. Sambade et al. J. Virol. Methods 87:25, 2000. (2) C. Vela et al. J. Gen. Virol. 67:91, 1986.