Citrus Bacterial Canker Disease of Lime Trees in the Maldive Islands. C. N. Roistacher, Department of Plant Pathology, University of California, Riverside 92521. E. L. Civerolo, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, PSI, Fruit Laboratory, Beltsville, MD 20705. Plant Dis. 73:363-367. Accepted for publication 12 December 1988. This article is in the public domain and not copyrightable. It may be freely reprinted with customary crediting of the source. The American Phytopathological Society, 1989. DOI: 10.1094/PD-73-0363.

A serious decline of lime (Citrus aurantifolia) trees was investigated on a number of islands of the Republic of Maldives in 1987. Surviving trees on the islands of the north and south Male’atolls had typical symptoms of citrus bacterial canker disease (CBCD) on branches, trunks, limbs, and fruit. On the southern islands of the Laam atoll, trees had severe symptoms of CBCD on all aboveground parts, including severe leaf drop and twig, branch, and trunk dieback, with death of some trees. Xanthomonas campestris pv. citri was isolated from many lesions on infected twigs, leaves, and fruit, and the strains were identified as the pathotype associated with Asian CBCD. Temperature, rainfall, and wind in the Maldives are optimum for CBCD development and could account for the rapid decline of lime trees on the Maldive Islands. This is the first report of CBCD in the Maldive Islands. The apparent rapid decline of lime trees is new in the epidemiology of CBCD.