Virus, pests, biological control were the central topic of a speech by Antonia Elorrieta, PhD in Plant Pathology and member of Labcolor's laboratory, who did not hesitate to say that seed companies are not responsible for spreading viruses intentionally just to "later promote their new resistant varieties." Elorrieta listed various vectors that can lead to the contamination of plants by viruses, including mechanical means, human factors, pests and the various plant materials that can help in their propagation. Seeds are not among the listed modes of transmission, and she cited the case of the New Delhi, which is transmitted by an insect.
Over the decades, Almeria has suffered a long list of pests and viruses. Whiteflies in the 80's, the TYLCV and yellowing in the 90's, and well into the twenty-first century, the yellow vein mosaic virus, and currently, in the second decade of the century, the New Delhi and the PepMV on tomatoes. Not forgetting the Spotted, a virus "born in Australia in 1915, which reached Almeria in 1989, causing billion dollar losses to the affected crops," said Elorrieta.
The solutions to tackle these viruses have come from laboratories at seed companies.
Source: COEXPHAL