Xylella: the greatest threat to Australian agriculture?
Philip Taylor A *A CABI E-UK, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9TY, UK.
Philip Taylor gained a first-class honours degree in Plant Sciences from Wye College, University of London, in 1982. He then pursued an academic career path with a PhD at John Innes Institute on the Downy mildew of pea and these studies led to two post-docs, one in Illinois and one in Durham, UK. Subsequently, he became a lecturer in molecular plant pathology at the University of Hull, UK. He then gave up the academic life to become a farmer, successfully running a large commercial farm taking it into organic, and GM production. His interest remained in science and during this time he took an MSc in science communication at Imperial College and represented the National Farmers Union on biotechnical matters as part of their working party. Years later another change of tack took him to CABI as part of the international development group and he became the training manager for Plantwise; a large donor funded programme designed to bolster extension services in developing countries. He has travelled extensively in this role. |
Microbiology Australia 43(4) 165-168 https://doi.org/10.1071/MA22055
Submitted: 5 October 2022 Accepted: 4 November 2022 Published: 29 November 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the ASM. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
The realities of climate change and global world trade could be playing into the hands of plant pathogens, none more so than Xylella fastidiosa. A relatively unimportant and parochial pathogen 50 years ago, it has become one of the most important plant diseases in the world threatening crop production in a wide variety of tree crops all over the globe. It moves within a region within insect vectors analogous to virus transmission but long-distance spread is through traded, often asymptomatic, plants. On arrival in a new region many of the local sap feeding insect population are candidates for its spread and this uncertainty coupled with the potential for the range of these as yet unidentified vectors to enlarge is heaping uncertainty on uncertainty. In addition to crop plants, many amenity trees species are susceptible, infection is often fatal and there is no cure once infection has occurred. Phytosanitation officers around the globe are deeply concerned about this new threat, the likes of which have never been seen previously.
Keywords: biosecurity, climate change, devastating, economic impact, insect vectors, olive quick decline syndrome, sharp shooter, Xylella fastidiosa.
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