Current status of Aster yellows disease in infected vineyards in the Vredendal grape producing area of South Africa Carstens Roleen1,2,*, Petersen Yolanda1, Stephan Dirk2, Burger Johan2 1ARC Infruitec-Nietvoorbij, Private Bag X5026, Stellenbosch, 7599, South Africa 2Department of Genetics, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland, 7602, South Africa *Corresponding author e-mail: carstensr@arc.agric.za
Online published on 21 February, 2012. Abstract Aster yellows (AY) phytoplasma disease was recently detected in South African vineyards. In order to monitor the incidence and spread of the disease, thirteen vineyards in the Vredendal region were surveyed during the 2010 and 2011 seasons for AY disease. Vineyards were visually inspected for AY symptoms and phytoplasma presence was confirmed by PCR assays. Preliminary results showed differences in AY disease incidences, ranging from 0.1% to 32.7% (2010 season) and from 0.2% to 62.2% (2011 season) within selected vineyards. Top Keywords Disease incidence, spreading tempo of disease, Aster yellows phytoplasma. Top |