- Author: Ben Faber
Citrus Huanglongbing (HLB), also known as greening, is one of the most serious citrus plant diseases in the world. Infected trees produce bitter fruits that are green, misshapen, and unsuitable for sale. Once a tree is infected, there is no cure and it typically dies within a few years. Greening has already devastated the Florida citrus industry and poses a threat to California and Texas as well as Australia and the Mediterranean region.
Currently the most effective ways to prevent the spread of HLB are to stop the causal agent (Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus) using quarantine measures, control the insect that spreads the disease (Asian citrus psyllid), remove the diseased trees, and plant HLB free trees. To this end, early diagnosis of HLB-diseased trees is crucial. Traditionally, diagnosis relies on observing blotchy mottle symptoms and confirming disease presence using molecular tools. However, these symptoms do not show until months after disease transmission and by then the disease has likely already spread throughout the grove.
Professor Nian Wang and his postdoctoral research associate Dr. Sheo Shanker Pandey, both from Citrus Research and Education Center, Department of Microbiology and Cell Science, at the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences of University of Florida, developed a strategy for early diagnosis of HLB before the appearance of blotchy mottle symptoms. They used a low-cost staining method to identify insect feeding sites and tested those identified sites for the causal agent using quantitative real-time PCR (polymerase chain reaction).
Through this method, the pair were able to detect the HLB causal agent up to two days after transmission and long before the appearance of symptoms. This early detection will enable citrus growers to prevent the spread of HLB in their fields. This finding is especially crucial for California, Texas, Australia, and the Mediterranean region as those areas are currently plagued by HLB.
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More details about this study can be found in "Targeted Early Detection of Citrus Huanglongbing Causal Agent 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' Before Symptom Expression" in Phytopathology Volume 109, Number 6, published June 2019.
https://apsjournals.apsnet.org/doi/full/10.1094/PHYTO-11-18-0432-R
The appearance of HLB symptoms in 5-month-old cultivar Valencia seedlings fed by Asian citrus psyllid for 2 to 20 days. The HLB symptoms were monitored at 30, 60, and 90 days postinoculation (dpi). Representative images of HLB symptom development are shown. Photo: Sheo Shankar Pandey and Nian Wang
- Author: Ben Faber
From
Cressida Silvers
ACP/HLB Grower Liaison
Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties
805 284-3310
Reminder of 2019 Fall ACP Area Wide Management Schedule
September 8 - 21: Carpinteria, Summerland, Montecito
September 15 - 28: Santa Barbara, Goleta, and the rest of the county
Here is the University of California website on ACP monitoring techniques and management recommendations: ucanr.edu/sites/ACP/Grower_Options/Grower_Management/
If you are restricted in your choice of materials, applications of horticultural oil can be effective.
Remember to notify beekeepers in your area before treating by contacting the County Ag Department at 805 681-5600. Get additional information about the new on-line bee registration and notification system BeeWhere at beewherecalifornia.com .
ACP continues to be difficult to find in the field. This is a good thing, and we want to keep it that way, so please keep up the good work by continuing to monitor your trees and participate in the Area Wide Management Program.
Remember, difficulty finding ACP does not mean it is not present in the orchard, or not in surrounding residential citrus. The fact that ACP adults continue to show up in yellow sticky traps throughout the south county is a reminder of this.
Secretary Ross Visits Santa Barbara County
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross visited Santa Barbara County last month to hear first hand how neighboring cannabis operations are impacting existing agriculture. Several citrus growers, PCAs, applicators, and I had the honor of speaking with Secretary Ross, along with representatives from the governor's office, CDFA, and the county agricultural commissioner's office.
HLB Update
The most recent map and totals for all HLB detections in the state are posted at the website maps.cdfa.ca.gov/WeeklyACPMaps/HLBWeb/HLB_Treatments.pdf. As of August 2, a total of 1,534 trees and 256 ACP have tested positive for the HLB bacterium, on a total of 1,110 sites, all still in LA, Orange, and Riverside Counties. To date, all HLB detections have been on residential properties, the infected trees have been or are being removed, and ACP treatments applied on a recurring basis to remaining citrus in those areas. No HLB has been found in commercial groves.
Voluntary Best Practices for HLB protection
As HLB detections increase and spread, it's important to be aware of possible actions you could take to further protect your citrus should an HLB detection occur in your area. These Voluntary Best Practices can be found at the Citrus Insider website HERE.
Regulatory responses required by the state in response to an HLB detection are described in CDFA's Action Plan for ACP and HLB .
UPCOMING CPDPC MEETINGS -- All meeting agendas and eventually the minutes are posted at www.cdfa.ca.gov/citruscommittee/ . All meetings are free and open to the public, and accessible via phone/webinar.
- Operations and Outreach Subcommittees meeting date has changed to Wed, Aug 21. Outreach agenda is here, Operations Agenda is pending.
Additional Useful Links:
Summaries of the latest scientific research on combating HLB: ucanr.edu/sites/scienceforcitrushealth/
Science-based analyses to guide policy decisions, logistics, and operations: www.datoc.us
General updates and information on the state ACP/HLB program and regional activities: citrusinsider.org
- Author: Ben Faber
- Author: Elizabeth Grafton-Cardwell
- Author: Barbara Alonso
The summer issue of Citrograph has just been released, and our outreach project has been featured. Written by Sara García-Figuera, the article discusses our approach for educating citrus stakeholders, researchers, media and the general public about the nationwide technologies being developed to combat the devastating citrus disease – huanglongbing (HLB). Read more about all the tools available to growers and the general public at http://www.citrusresearch.org/uncategorized/citrograph-summer-2019/#more-8369 (pages 28-30)
/span>- Author: Ben Faber
Voluntary Best Practices for Growers' Response to Huanglongbing
To provide California citrus growers with a strong toolbox of science-supported strategies and tactics to protect their orchards from Huanglongbing, the Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Committee endorsed a set of best practices for growers to voluntarily employ in response to HLB in California.
The recommendations – which are grouped based on a grower's proximity to an HLB detection – represent the most effective tools known to the citrus industry at this time and are meant to supplement the California Department of Food and Agriculture's required regulatory response. They were developed by a task force consisting of growers from various regions across the state and scientists, including Dr. Beth Grafton-Cardwell and Dr. Neil McRoberts.
Growers are encouraged to use as many methods as feasible for their operation in order to limit the spread of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and HLB, as the cost to manage the Asian citrus psyllid is far less than any potential costs or loss to the industry should HLB take hold throughout our state.
The Best Practices at a Glance
The complete best practices document, which includes the scientific rationale for the best practices, can be downloaded here. The following grid is intended to provide a brief, digestible format of the best practices.
- Author: Ben Faber
Canines can detect trees infected
with the bacterium
that causes huanglongbing
Research by Dr. Tim Gottwald
Article written by Tim Gottwald, Holly Deniston-Sheets and Beth Grafton-Cardwell.
Revised June 13, 2019.
What is the technique?
Canines have a highly sensitive scent detection capability that is significantly better (parts per trillion) than most laboratory instruments and they can be trained to “alert” (either sit or lay) when they detect specific ‘smells' (known as scent signatures). Most people are familiar with their ability to detect bombs, drugs, and plant material at airports. However, canines are also used to detect human pests, such as bed bugs, and agricultural pests, such as stink bugs, date palm weevils and imported fire ants.
With regard to agricultural pathogens, canines have been shown to detect with greater than 98% accuracy the fungal pathogen that causes laurel wilt disease in avocado, the bacterium that causes citrus canker disease in citrus, and plum pox virus in peach orchards.
Researchers have been training and evaluating the efficacy of canines for detecting “Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus” (CLas), the bacterium that causes huanglongbing (HLB), for 5 years in Florida, and CLas detection efforts with canines have recently begun in California. Dogs have been trained in both the laboratory environment and in the field. Researchers have demonstrated that well-trained canines can detect CLas over 95% of the time in commercial trees and over 92% of the time in residential trees. Researchers did not observe any differences in canine performance between citrus species and varieties. The training that the canines receive is very specific to CLas. When they are taken into citrus orchards infected with citrus tristeza virus, viroids, the fungal pathogen Phytophthora, or the bacterium that causes citrus stubborn, the CLas-trained canines do not respond to these diseases.
Video of canine Maci running a row of trees in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas
The canines provide a significant opportunity to be used as an Early Detection Technology (EDT) in California. In a field study using potted citrus in Florida, dogs could detect CLas in some of the trees as early as 2 weeks after CLas-infected psyllids fed on the trees. In contrast, it can take 1-2 years for CLas to distribute itself in a mature citrus tree sufficiently for the bacterium to be present in sampled the leaves, which are then tested and shown to be infected using laboratory techniques, such as Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Using canines to detect early infections could significantly help reduce disease spread in California, where HLB is currently limited to southern areas of the state and identify areas where increased psyllid control measures are needed
Who is working on the project?
Dr. Tim Gottwald, Research Leader and Epidemiologist at the USDA, U.S. Horticultural Research Laboratory in Fort Pierce, Florida, and additional collaborators with F1K9 laboratories, USDA, North Carolina State University, Texas A&M University and the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
What are the challenges and opportunities?
The volatile scent signature associated with CLas-infection settles from the canopy and simultaneously emanates from root infections pooling at the base of the tree. The detector dog interrogates the tree holistically by alerting in seconds on the scent signature regardless of its origin (i.e., a single leaf, root, stem or the entire tree if systemically infected). Conversely, other detection technologies, like PCR, are reliant on selecting and processing a small amount of tissue from large trees and often miss incipient infections because infected tissue is so rare in newly infected trees. Early detection via dogs is devoid of these sampling issues. Therefore, it is difficult to confirm CLas detections by dogs using currently available molecular or chemical detection methods. Dogs have been tested in hot and cold temperatures and with wind speeds up to 20 MPH with no perceptible degradation in detection.
Human scouts require several minutes per tree to visually examine it for symptoms, then they must collect tissue which must be transported to a diagnostic lab for processing and analysis, which is time consuming and labor-intensive. Whereas, in a residential environment dogs can assess all trees in even large yards in a couple of minutes. The major limitation to the number of trees a dog can assess per day is access to these residential properties and the time required to relocate from property to property. In commercial groves a team of two dogs and one handler can survey a 10 acre planting (~1500 trees) in 1-2 hours depending on the number of infected trees; each positive alert requires rewarding the dog and tagging the infected tree. Dogs usually work 30 min then rest 30 min and can work 6-8 hours a day.
Utilizing dogs, CLas can be detected early in a region, when it is in just a few trees. If these few early infected trees are removed, the establishment and spread of the disease could be greatly reduced.
Like every detection instrument, dogs need to be periodically recalibrated. This is done by resensitizing them to known CLas-positive trees or specially prepared ‘scent pads' that contain the scent signature of CLas to ensure they maintain > 98% accuracy of detection before being redeployed.
Funding source: This project is funded by the USDA Farm Bill, USDA HLB Multiagency Committee (MAC), and USDA ARS program funds.
This article originally posted on the Science for Citrus Health website.
Photo: Canine checking trees at Lindcove Research and Extension Center, Exeter, CA