Dutch PSTVd outbreak officially eradicated

The first outbreak of PSTVd on seedless, or vegetatively propagated C. annuum plants for planting was detected on 30 March 2016 in five professional greenhouses in the Netherlands. All findings were linked to the same propagation material. The suspicion was first reported to the NPPO of the Netherlands by the breeding company of these selections.

The propagation (stock) material of these C. annuum plants was imported by a Dutch nursery from Israel in 2014 and 2015. After making their own mother plants, plants for planting of these selections were distributed to the affected companies in the Netherlands and some other EU Member States, who have been duly informed. All selections concerned small lots of plants intended for demonstration purposes. In one greenhouse in the Netherlands, the neighbouring tomato fruit crop also tested positive (1 ha) and following completion of the growing season the entire crop was destroyed.

In the Netherlands the same PSTVd sequence was found in all samples taken at the five greenhouses. This sequence appeared very similar to earlier findings of PSTVd on Solanum jasminoides. Early November 2016 one additional greenhouse with seedless C. annuum tested positive (3.28 ha), whereby specific measures for removal and destruction of the crop were applied. By the end of 2016, measures for eradication at all six locations were completed.

All infected material has been destroyed. All measures at affected companies were completed by 1 December 2016. In the course of 2016 a specific surveillance and testing of samples from 25 other fruit production companies of C. annuum was completed whereby no further findings of PSTVd were recorded.

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