Bacterial spot of tomato and pepper caused by what we now know as X. euvesicatoria pv. euvesicatoria was described for the first time on tomato in 1920 in South Africa. Nowadays, bacterial spot is the name used to describe a specific set of symptoms on peppers and tomatoes - caused by four xanthomonad lineages - not to specifically indicate the nomenclature of the causal agent.
During the last decade, occurrence of Bacterial spot X. euvesicatoria pv. euvesicatoria on pepper and tomato was documented in different countries. For instance, prevalence of X. euvesicatoria pv. euvesicatoria in Australia (Roach et al. 2018), Brazil (Areas et al. 2015), Bulgaria and Macedonia (Vancheva et al. 2014), Korea (Myung et al. 2015; Kyeon et al. 2016), and Tanzania (Mbega et al. 2012) has been recorded based on the molecular-phylogenetic evidences. The pathogen has also been reported recently in Germany (Nechwatal and Theil 2020).
As a complex disease which is caused by a heterogeneous group of xanthomonads, bacterial spot occurs in many countries on greenhouse-grown as well as the field grown tomato and pepper with a particular importance in the areas characterized by warm and humid environmental conditions or the fields where sprinkler irrigation is used. As a seed-borne pathogen, X. euvesicatoria pv. euvesicatoria is included in the A2 (high risk) list of quarantine pathogens (EPPO code XANTEU; Phytosanitary categorization: A2 no. 157, EU Annex designation II/A2). Hence, it is under strict quarantine control and zero tolerance all over the globe (EPPO 2013; EFSA 2014).
Due to the taxonomic complexities within the bacterial spot xanthomonads, the exact distribution of each of the four lineages of the pathogen has not yet been determined. The information provided in the literature might have referred to the bacterial spot as a complex disease instead of determining the species/pathovar status of the corresponding pathogen. Even after the reclassification of the species in 2004, some of the descriptions of the pathogen in the areas with no history of the disease did not exactly determine the updated taxonomic status of the causal agent.