Canarian Weekly
29-05-2015, 09:50
SPANISH olive groves are being threatened seriously by deadly bacteria, which originated in the US and is currently blighting Italian olive groves.
It has been Christened “Olive Ebola” by Blanca Landa, researcher from the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture.
It is is part of the CSIC – one of Spain’s foremost scientific organisations – and the disease is currently a major threat to Spanish olive groves across the south of the country, which could be decimated.
The Xylella fastidiosa bacteria was detected in southern Italy in 2013. It has since been responsible for the olive’s quick decline syndrome (OQDS), a disease which has caused a rapid drop in olive plantations.
The bacteria had never been detected in Europe before being confirmed in southern Italy, where it is currently ravaging olive groves in the Apulia region.
Spain is the biggest olive-oil producer in the European Union and officials are, naturally, worried about the potential threat to the country’s mammoth olive industry.
Landa told Spanish daily ABC: “The Italian outbreak is very virulent – the bacteria’s virulence in olive trees is unprecedented.”
She added: “It is unforgiving. The Italian farmers we met told us they had taken better care of their olive groves than their children and now they are damaged irrevocably. In just a year, it can wipe out an entire plantation.”
What makes the bacteria even more threatening is the lack of a cure for it, which means affected olive trees have to be felled.
Ester Herranz, a Popular Party MEP, has complained that the European Union has done little to confront the disease since it was first detected.
It is true that the EU action has been slow to take off. Only last week, the European Parliament failed to pass a resolution calling for the EU to take the bacteria threat more seriously by determining it were necessary to stop agricultural imports from high-risk zones.
Landa has criticised the lack of EU funding for research into the disease which could already be in Spain.
“Xylella could already be in Spain and gone unnoticed,” she told ABC. “One of the species it affects is oleanders, and Andalusia is full of them, often very close to thousands of acres of olive groves.”
The fear is that if the bacteria does make it to Spain, there will be little anyone can do to halt it, and Landa warned: “It will be unstoppable.
“We need to put in place a system of mass-screening for the bacteria, to avoid having to tear up thousands of olive trees,” she said.
Back in March, EU member states failed to reach an agreement on how to stop the spread of the disease. Spain wanted a hard line, fearing for its own olive groves as well as vines and citrus trees, EU officials told AFP.
But Italy was less willing to take drastic measures as growers mounted increasing resistance to the destruction of age-old olive groves.
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/ebola-threat-olives/)
It has been Christened “Olive Ebola” by Blanca Landa, researcher from the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture.
It is is part of the CSIC – one of Spain’s foremost scientific organisations – and the disease is currently a major threat to Spanish olive groves across the south of the country, which could be decimated.
The Xylella fastidiosa bacteria was detected in southern Italy in 2013. It has since been responsible for the olive’s quick decline syndrome (OQDS), a disease which has caused a rapid drop in olive plantations.
The bacteria had never been detected in Europe before being confirmed in southern Italy, where it is currently ravaging olive groves in the Apulia region.
Spain is the biggest olive-oil producer in the European Union and officials are, naturally, worried about the potential threat to the country’s mammoth olive industry.
Landa told Spanish daily ABC: “The Italian outbreak is very virulent – the bacteria’s virulence in olive trees is unprecedented.”
She added: “It is unforgiving. The Italian farmers we met told us they had taken better care of their olive groves than their children and now they are damaged irrevocably. In just a year, it can wipe out an entire plantation.”
What makes the bacteria even more threatening is the lack of a cure for it, which means affected olive trees have to be felled.
Ester Herranz, a Popular Party MEP, has complained that the European Union has done little to confront the disease since it was first detected.
It is true that the EU action has been slow to take off. Only last week, the European Parliament failed to pass a resolution calling for the EU to take the bacteria threat more seriously by determining it were necessary to stop agricultural imports from high-risk zones.
Landa has criticised the lack of EU funding for research into the disease which could already be in Spain.
“Xylella could already be in Spain and gone unnoticed,” she told ABC. “One of the species it affects is oleanders, and Andalusia is full of them, often very close to thousands of acres of olive groves.”
The fear is that if the bacteria does make it to Spain, there will be little anyone can do to halt it, and Landa warned: “It will be unstoppable.
“We need to put in place a system of mass-screening for the bacteria, to avoid having to tear up thousands of olive trees,” she said.
Back in March, EU member states failed to reach an agreement on how to stop the spread of the disease. Spain wanted a hard line, fearing for its own olive groves as well as vines and citrus trees, EU officials told AFP.
But Italy was less willing to take drastic measures as growers mounted increasing resistance to the destruction of age-old olive groves.
More... (http://www.canarianweekly.com/ebola-threat-olives/)