Incidence of ilarviruses in cherry nurseries and newly established orchards

Abstract

Sweet cherry (Prunus avium L.) is one of the most important stone fruit species in Bulgaria. The species is known to be susceptible to more than 30 viruses. Among them are the important prune dwarf virus (PDV), prunus necrotic ringspot virus (PNRSV) and apple mosaic virus (ApMV), ilarviruses. Testing for these viruses is required in the certification schemes in order to provide virus-tested propagated material to the fruit-growing industry and to prevent their distribution by imported infected plant materials. Visual field surveys, followed by DAS-ELISA tests of 664 leaf samples collected in 2019 and 2020 from cherry trees grown in several nurseries and young orchards were conducted. PDV and PNRSV were serologically detected. ApMV was not detected in any of the tested one-year-old seedlings and young trees. The overall infection rate was 11.4%. PDV was the most frequent (7.4%), both in nurseries (7.2%) and in ‘young’ orchards (7.6%), followed by PNRSV – 4.1% in nurseries and 4.0% in ‘young’ orchards. The results showed differences in the average occurrence among the viruses in nurseries and the orchards, ranging from 0.9 % in a nursery (Plovdiv district) to 31.6% in one-year-old orchard (Petrich region).

Keywords

• bulgaria
• das-elisa
• infections
• pnrsv
• pdv
• apmv