The sustainability of old grapevine mother plants in relation to new mandatory diagnostic tests for virus control

Abstract

In 2011, the methods to perform phytosanitary tests to check for viruses in grapevine nurseries were reassessed and new regulations were defined (DM 13 December 2011). The mandatory tests require serological assays for the diagnosis of five viruses in grapevine mother plants transplanted in Tuscany in 2001 or before. The aim of the present paper is to report the impact of certification programs applied before 2001 in Tuscany and the sustainability of older mother plants with relation to the new mandatory diagnostic tests. Among the cultivars, virus infection was reported in 19.2% of pool samples, whereas 2.4% of rootstock pool samples showed a compromised health status. GLRaV-3 is the most frequently found virus (10.4% and 1.3% of cultivar and rootstock pools, respectively), and it is also included in the most frequent multiple infections. Multiple infections represent about 25% of infected cultivar pools and almost 50% of infected rootstock pools.

Keywords

• Arabis mosaic virus
• Grapevine fanleaf virus
• Grapevine leafroll
• Grapevine virus A