CSIRO Publishing Books Journals About Us Shopping Cart You are here: Journals > Australasian Plant Pathology   
Australasian Plant Pathology
  Research in all branches of plant pathology
 
Search
 
 
  Advanced Search
   

Journal Home
About the Journal
Content
Current Issue
Just Accepted
All Issues
Special Issues

 Australasian Plant Disease Notes
Disease notes, new records and quarantine interception reports are published in Australasian Plant Disease Notes.

 

Article << Previous     |     Next >>   Contents Vol 34(4)

Spread of citrus huanglongbing (greening disease) following incursion into Papua New Guinea

R. I. Davis A C, T. G. Gunua B, M. F. Kame B, D. Tenakanai B, T. K. Ruabete A

A Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Private Mail Bag, Suva, Fiji Islands.
B National Agricultural Quarantine and Inspection Authority (NAQIA), PO Box 741, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.
C Corresponding author. Email: richardd@spc.int
 
 Full Text
 PDF (445 KB)
 Export Citation
 Print
  


Abstract

Huanglongbing (HLB) was previously known in many countries as greening disease. It is caused by the bacterium ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ and is vectored by the Asian citrus psyllid Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera: Psyllidae). A delimiting survey showed that the disease had become established in, and near the border town of, Vanimo in the Sandaun Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) by late 2002. A campaign of quarantine containment and public awareness followed. A second survey undertaken 1 year later indicated that long-distance movement of the disease and its vector had not occurred. Out of a total of 120 trees indexed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), 4/72 were HLB-positive in 2002 compared to 12/48 in 2003. The second survey found presumptive evidence for limited HLB disease cluster expansion and further independent introduction of infected planting material. HLB-positive samples were also screened for Citrus tristeza virus (CTV) infection using a double antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The symptoms observed on leaves of orange (Citrus sinensis) and lemon (Citrus limon) infected by ‘Ca. L. asiaticus’ alone and ‘Ca. L. asiaticus’ plus CTV were similar. This is also the first verified record of CTV in PNG. No evidence was found for the presence of HLB in four Pacific Island countries (Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Samoa and Tonga) to the east of PNG with 18 citrus trees tested negative by PCR.

   
    


 
Top  Email this page
 
Legal & Privacy | Contact Us | Help

CSIRO

© CSIRO 1996-2012