Almendro with Xylella. Photo: IVIA.

The Ibero-American Network for the control of Xylella fastidiosa (CYTED-IBER-XYFAS) has organized this Tuesday the 17th at the House of Science in Valencia a conference in which the latest advances in the detection of the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa have been presented. The event is organized by the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology, a joint center of the University of Valencia and the CSIC, as well as the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research.

Specialists in the detection of this pest from Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Italy, the Balearic Islands and Valencia participated in the session. Thus, Edson Bertolini, from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil, has analyzed the presence of Xylella in citrus fruits and other plants. 

Carlos Alonso Chacón, from the Tropical Diseases Research Center of the University of Costa Rica, has treated the condition of this bacteria in its environment; María Saponara (Sustainable Plant Protection Institute of Italy), the European diagnostic protocol; and Diego Olmo (Official Plant Health Laboratory of the Balearic Islands) has explained the recognition of symptoms and action protocols against Xylella. Sergio Cubero, from the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research, has spoken about the detection of this bacteria using remote sensors.

Tuesday's session is the first activity of the IBER Juli Peretó, professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of the University of Valencia and vice director of the Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2SysBio, UV-CSIC). It is made up of a consortium of 32 academic research groups, companies and institutions with agronomic competences (such as the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research or the corresponding plant health services of the Generalitat Valenciana, the Balearic Government or the General Council of Aragon), belonging to 10 countries (Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Spain, United States of America, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Portugal and Chile).

The consortium IBER-XYFAS also proposes to raise awareness among citizens in general and the agricultural sector in particular about the diseases, until now incurable, caused by this bacteria that attacks numerous crops of great economic importance, including almond trees, olive trees, grapevines, citrus fruits and a wide variety of fruit trees. According to Juli Peretó, “the arrival of this bacteria in Europe is recent, and it is interesting to share knowledge and experiences with countries that live with this pathogen, such as Brazil, to develop a surveillance system that facilitates decision-making by governments.”

You can download the program of the day by clicking here.