It is necessary to maintain a
high level of surveillance to prevent Xylella fastidiosa
contagion while continuing to work on resistant olive cultivars
and research into new possible treatments with the anti-bacteria
viruses discovered in Spain - these were the elements that
emerged during the final conference of XF-ACTORS, an EU-financed
project devoted entirely to the plant pathogen.
The project brought together researchers from 29 organizations
from 14 countries around the world, with with Bari's IPSP
Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the National
Research Council (CNR) playing a lead role.
"Combining different instruments, such as statistical models,
images taken from above and sensors, could boost the early
detection of infection," said IPSP-CNR's Maria Saponari, the
coordinator of the international research project.
"Surveillance remains essential for prevention while research
continues into the resistant varieties and encouraging new roads
for treatment open up".
These include microorganisms capable of wiping out the Xylella
fastidiosa population of infected plants, which were identified
for the first time by a group of researchers from Valencia,
Spain.
If the subsequent phases of experimentation confirm these
results, these microorganisms could be used in products for the
biological control of the bacteria.
The XF-ACTORS scientists carried out in-depth studies on the
role of the meadow spittlebug in the spread of the bacteria,
gathering, for the first time, data about the cicada's life
cycle, its feeding habits and the vector's communication methods
in order to create sustainable systems of population control and
provide input to improve the forecast models for the spread of
the bacteria that are useful to the plant-health authorities to
set up effective territorial inspection activities.
As part of the XF-ACTORS project, researchers managed to date
the presence of Xylella fastidiosa in Europe to the 1990s,
earlier than previously thought, with traces in the Balearic
Islands and in Corsica of a subspecies different to the one in
Puglia.
The data presented at the conference showed that Xylella is not
the same all over Europe and the Puglia strain is the most
aggressive discovered so far anywhere in the world.
The data also shows that olive tress resist infections of the
strains found in Spain and similar ones in Corsica, Portugal and
Tuscany.
The video-convention will be followed on Thursday and Friday by
the third European conference on Xylella fastidiosa, organized
bt EFSA.
The week of meetings enables scientists to take stock of six
years of EU-financed research, which started in 2014 with the
POnTE project.
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