First report of Phytophthora rubi in the Czech Republic
The NPPO of the Czech Republic recently informed the EPPO Secretariat of the first record of Phytophthora rubi (EPPO A2 List) on its territory. On 2014-06-23, a garden service worker noticed unusual symptoms in raspberry plants (Rubus idaeus cvs. ‘Heritage’ and ‘Tulameen’) in a garden in the municipality of Přívrat, district of Ústí nad Orlicí. A sample was collected and sent to the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (CISTA). On 2014-07-29, the presence of Phytophthora rubi was confirmed by molecular tests (PCR and sequence analysis). The pathway of introduction of the pathogen is not known. Plants from both cultivars originated from the Czech Republic. They had been produced from tissue cultures in a laboratory, and planted in a nursery in pots containing horticultural substrate which had never been in contact with field soil. The plants had been bought from the nursery in July 2013 and planted in the garden where the symptoms appeared only in June 2014. The nursery is subject to regular official plant health checks, and none of the inspections carried out in 2013 and in 2014 detected symptoms in any of the Rubus plant lots. No phytosanitary measures were taken.
The pest status of Phytophthora rubi in the Czech Republic is officially declared as: Present, only in some areas.
Sources
NPPO of the Czech Republic (2014-09).