INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER ON PLANT PATHOLOGY

(UK Registered Charity No 1065521)

Material for the Newsletter is invited from individual members of ISPP, Associated Societies, Council members, Chairs of all Committees and representatives of Affiliated Societies and Supporting Organisations.

Editors, Joseph-Alexander Verreet, e-mail: javerreet@phytomed.uni-kiel.de
and Elaine Davison, e-mail: edavison@agric.wa.gov.au

In this issue:

• Report on the 8^th International Congress of Plant Pathology
• Report on the International Plant Virus Epidemiology Workshop
• Thanks to Brian Deverall, Newsletter Editor
• Sudden oak death on-line symposium
• Compendium of Pepper Diseases
• Coming Events

The eighth International Congress of Plant Pathology (ICPP2003) was held in Christchurch New Zealand from the 2^nd to the 8^th of February 2003. This Congress incorporated the 14^th Biennial Conference of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society.

From the numerous letters and Emails that have been received since the event from around the world, we can confidently conclude that the Congress was a huge success. The event attracted almost 1300 delegates from over 70 countries from around the world, plus 600 accompanying persons. There were 150 invited speakers at keynote and concurrent sessions and 1200 offered poster papers, some of which were presented at 29 poster discussion sessions during the afternoons of 4 & 6 February. There were 22 evening sessions including a public forum on global food security, with invited speakers from the Philippines, Malaysia, China, India and the United Kingdom.

The congress began with a traditional Maori challenge and delegates being welcomed by Dr Peter Scott the Chairman of ISPP and by Dr Ian Harvey the Chairman of ICPP2003. The official opening was made by the Hon. Pete Hodgson, Minister for Research, Science and Technology in the New Zealand government. The Congress then proceeded to offer a busy and exciting range of presentations, which covered all disciplines within the field of plant pathology. Stimulating discussions occurred in all sessions. This congress was well supported by sponsors (please see our official website for details http://events.lincoln.ac.nz/icpp2003/).

Workshops

Associated with the Congress were 13 satellite workshops. The opening event of the congress was the first workshop held at Sydney University on Fusarium, 27 Jan. to 30 Jan 2003. The second workshop was on Plant Virus Epidemiology at the University of Canterbury on 31 January. Over the weekend of the 1 & 2 February there were three workshops at Canterbury University, with a further six at Lincoln University and three of those were of two day duration. After the Congress there were two workshops in Christchurch on Saturday 8 February, and a four day Seed Health workshop, 10 to 13 February at Lincoln University.

The ICPP2003 Bursary Assistance Scheme was administered by Dr Pim Sanderson. ICPP2003 is grateful for donated funds from several sources overseas and from within New Zealand. The funds were to assist post-graduates and plant pathologist from developing countries and emerging nations to attend the congress. Seventy-nine applicants received a total of NZ$150,000 in bursary fund assistance. Overseas contributors to the fund were The International Society for Plant Pathology, The Canadian Plant Pathology Society and The British Plant Pathology Society. Funds from New Zealand were from the New Zealand Plant Protection Society, The Canterbury Community Trust, and the Brian Mason Science & Technical Trust.

Scientific Programme

The theme of the congress was "Solving problems in the real world" The five keynote sessions were from 0900 to 1030 each day with each contained three speakers.

The topics were from Monday to Friday:

• Plant pathology in the Asia/Pacific region;

• Towards integrated control of soil-borne diseases;

• Host/pathogen interactions and molecular plant pathology;

• Towards integrated control of air-borne diseases;

• Knowledge transfer for plant pathology.

During the week, there were 32 concurrent sessions, mostly with four speakers in each session. In addition there was the Presidential address of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society, by Professor Lester Burgess on "Biosecurity, trade and plant pathology", and the McAlpine address by Professor Mike Wingfield "Exotic plantation forests in the Southern Hemisphere: Increasingly threatened by disease".

The two afternoon poster-viewing sessions were vibrant, well attended and informative. The subsequent formal oral presentations of selected posters gave delegates the opportunity to discuss the research in some more detail. In total, there were more than 1200 poster presentations over the two display sessions during the week.

Newsletter and Social Programme

A daily newsletter was produced to background delegates on the keynote themes for the day. It also provided information on various attractions around Christchurch, photographs of delegates and any general notices.

Lunchtime entertainment was mainly provided by local school bands. These included an Irish band, a jazz band and two musical quartets. The internationally recognised Sweet Adelines woman's choral group also entertained. This entertainment was much appreciated by delegates, who remained on the convention site with packaged lunches that were provided every day.

Many comments were received during and after the Congress on the helpfulness and openness of the staff running the event. A uniform of bright green tee or polo shirts made these people instantly recognisable, with little confusion as to who needed to be asked for advice or directions.

Delegates were treated to a range of social events during the conference. The welcome reception on the Sunday night provided an opportunity for over 800 delegates to meet, talk and taste some exciting food. On the Wednesday night food and local wine tasting was enjoyed at six wineries around Christchurch. The Congress dinner on the Friday night provided a range of New Zealand foods, non-stop entertainment and a great dance band.

Concluding Session:

The final session was on "Challenges for Plant Pathology in the 21^st Century", with stimulating addresses from Prof. Mike Jeger, Prof. Ian Crute (both from the United Kingdom), and Marilou Infante from the Philippines. Then a number of prizes were presented. On behalf of the Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Jacob Eriksson Prize for 2003 was presented to Dr Jaacov Katan. This was in recognition of Dr. Katan's original and innovative research in the fields of soil solarization and soil-borne pathogens, his outstanding and broad international co-operation, and his dedication to the education of younger plant pathologists.

Prizes awarded by the Australasian Plant Pathology Society were: The Alan Kerr Postgraduate Prize to Jillian Smith-White; Fellowships of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society to Dr Roger Jones and Dr Graham Stirling; and Honorary Membership of the Australasian Plant Pathology Society to Dr Ron Close and Dr Helen Ogle. Finally, the ISPP congress flag was handed on to delegates from Turin in Italy who are to arrange the ninth congress in 2008.

(Ron Close, Mark Braithwaite, Ian Harvey and other ICPP2003 members)

Report on the International Plant Virus Epidemiology Workshop

This successful 1 day international workshop was held at Canterbury University in Christchurch, South Island, New Zealand immediately before the 8^th International Congress of Plant Pathology in Christchurch. The workshop was attended by 48 participants from 10 different countries. It was held under the auspices of the Plant Virus Epidemiology Committee of the International Society for Plant Pathology. The workshop was entitled "Plant Virus Epidemiology Workshop – Applying Research to solve Practical Farming Problems", and its principal objective was "to demonstrate how an understanding of the epidemiology of aphid and thrips vectored plant viruses can be applied to limit losses caused by virus diseases, and give real benefits to farmers worldwide". There was a blend of developed and developing country contributions, with a total of 16 talks. The program started on the morning of Friday 31st January with registration and a welcome from the local organiser, Dr John Fletcher of the New Zealand Institute for Crop and Food Research at Lincoln, just outside Christchurch.

The opening session was on cereal virus diseases". It commenced with a paper by Thackray (Australia), presented in her absence by Jones (Australia), that described a well-validated simulation model that uses pre-growing season rainfall to forecast aphid outbreaks and barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) epidemics in cereals in a typical Mediterranean-type environment. Predictions for date of aphid arrival, amount of virus spread, yield losses and the need for early insecticide sprays are provided. Next, Teulon (New Zealand) described a forecasting model for BYDV and cereal aphids for a temperate climate that uses aphid catches in suction traps to make similar predictions. Data from 15 years of suction trapping was employed to establish the relationship between cereal aphid numbers caught and the BYDV epidemics that occur subsequently. Salomon (Israel) then described devastating yield losses in early-planted sweet corn in the Jordan Valley caused by mixed infection with maize dwarf mosaic and zea mosaic viruses spreading from the local Johnsongrass virus reservoir.

The second session was on viruses of potato and vegetable crops. First, Singh (Canada) described a forecasting system to predict the proportion of harvested potato tubers infected with potato leaf roll and potato Y (PVY) viruses in seed potato crops. Information from pan-trapped aphids and large-scale RT-PCR testing of young tuber samples from seed potato crops provided the basis on which the predictions were based. Next, Van der Vlught (The Netherlands) talked on the molecular epidemiology of PVY strains from potato, pepper, tomato and tobacco. PVY-NTN, the cause of the potato tuber necrotic ringspot disease, is derived from recombination events between different PVY strains and three ‘hot spots’ in its sequence have been identified. Latham (Australia) then described the epidemiology and control of carrot virus Y, a recently detected potyvirus causing damaging root symptoms in carrots that is widespread in Australia, but has not so far been recorded elsewhere. Continuous carrot production all-year-round increases incidence and leads to serious epidemics and losses. Next Fletcher (New Zealand) described aphid-borne virus epidemics in squash causing widespread fruit symptoms of sunburn and deformation. Zucchini yellow mosaic and watermelon mosaic virus 2 were the causal agents. Amount of shelter, prevailing winds and extent of weed reservoirs were the key factors influencing the magnitude of the epidemics.

The third session was on legume viruses. Makkouk (ICARDA) gave an overview of the incidence of aphid-borne viruses infecting cool-season food legumes in West Asia and North Africa. Five persistently and ten non-persistently aphid-borne viruses were found. In-depth surveys revealed that the spectrum, incidence and economic impact of these viruses varies greatly from county to country depending on environmental conditions. Overall, the pea aphid was the most important virus vector, and the most economically important viruses were faba bean necrotic yellows, bean leaf roll and bean yellow mosaic. Willekens (UK) then discussed management of groundnut rosette disease in sub-Saharan Africa. The importance of deploying cultivars with resistance to the virus and to its aphid vector and the obstacles in getting these adopted by local peasant farmers were emphasised.

The fourth session was on thrips-transmitted viruses. Sharman (Australia) described the spread of the new capsicum chlorosis tospovirus in Queensland where it is rapidly displacing tomato spotted wilt tospovirus (TSWV) as the most widespread virus disease in pepper and tomato crops. A breeding line of pepper is resistant to both viruses. In addition, spread of a resistance-breaking strain of TSWV that overcomes gene Tsw in pepper was reported. Coutts (Australia) then discussed analysis of the spatial patterns of spread of TSWV in lettuce and pepper crops, and drew conclusions as regards safe planting distances as part of an integrated disease management approach. The program SADIE proved very effective for the spatial analysis of the data. Next, Gera (Israel) described the rapidly increasing worldwide distribution of iris yellow spot virus on onion, the ‘straw bleaching’ disease it causes and its severe impact on production. In an epidemic situation, a very high proportion of incoming Thrips tabaci vectors may carry and transmit the virus. Overlapping onion sowings all-year-round maximise its incidence.

The fifth and final session concerned regional case studies. Stevens (UK) discussed a forecasting system that predicts the risk of infection and losses caused by the virus yellows complex in sugar beet in a temperate climate. Beet yellows, beet mild yellowing and beet chlorosis virus, all transmitted by aphids, are the three viral components of the virus complex. The forecast is based mainly on the number of ground frosts in winter and the timing of aphid migrations as determined by trap catches. However, the model is relatively little used to predict when foliar applied insecticides are needed for virus control because 78% of the beet seed sown in the UK is dressed with the insecticide imidacloprid before sowing, the forecast being provided too late. Colvin (UK) then described how extension of control measures against the whitefly-borne tomato yellow leaf curl virus in southern India has been undertaken in such a way as to optimise adoption. Participation of small farmers in decision making was critical to achieve uptake. One of the novel control measures being recommended involved deploying a fabric barrier with a yellow strip sprayed with insecticide to attract and kill whitefly vectors along its middle. The last talk was given by Pearson (New Zealand) on virus diseases in the South Pacific, especially those of little studied crops like yam, taro, vanilla and kava. Use of healthy planting material and preventing contact-transmission was more important in their management than vector control. Finally, Jones (Australia) provided a summarised account of the 8^th International Symposium organised by the Epidemiology group at Aschersleben, Germany in May, 2002 and then a brief summary of the outcomes of the New Zealand workshop. To round off the day, participants met for dinner later in the evening at the University of Canterbury.

This 1 day workshop successfully achieved its objective of ‘applying research to solve practical farming problems’ and maintained the high standards set by past Symposia organised by the International Virus Epidemiology Group (held every three years). John Fletcher and his support team from Lincoln, New Zealand (Jan Latham, Helen Shrewsbury, Marlene Jaspers and Virginia Morroni) are to be congratulated warmly over a job well done. Abstracts of the talks will be published in the journal Australasian Plant Pathology in due course.

(Roger Jones, Chair, Plant Virus Epidemiology Committee)

ISPP owes a deep debt of gratitude to Brian Deverall (Emeritus Professor B. J. Deverall, School of Land, Water and Crop Sciences, University of Sydney, bdeveral@mail.usyd.edu.au) who has been Editor of the Society's Newsletter from 1994 until December 2002.

This long period of service stretches back to the era when the Newsletter was printed on paper and distributed by post. Brian perceived earlier than most that this needed to be superseded by electronic dissemination. The first electronic edition, dated February 1998, carries the headline "ICPP98 - There's Still Time to Register!".

The record at http://www.isppweb.org/newsletter.asp stands as testimony to the achievement since then: every 2 months from February 1998 to December 2002, Brian produced another Newsletter for the Web. He achieved this by establishing a network of correspondents, and by exercising a news-hound's instinct for the topical. All those Newsletters can still be read on the Web. All took many hours or days to compile. All include an evolving list of Coming Events. And every one is distinctive, thorough, and authoritative.

Brian's editorship will be much missed. But ISPP is fortunate in having secured the services of two people who will take over the task: Elaine Davison of the Western Australia Department of Agriculture <edavison@agric.wa.gov.au>, and Joseph-Alexander Verreet of the University of Kiel <javerreet@phytomed.uni-kiel.de>.
(Peter Scott, Immediate Past President, ISPP)

The American Phytopathology Society will hold an online symposium on ‘Sudden oak death: how concerned should you be?’ from April 21 – May 4 http://sod.apsnet.org

The American Phytopathology Society has just published a Compendium of Pepper Diseases, edited by Kenneth L. Pernezny, Pamela D. Roberts, John F. Murphy, and Natalie P. Goldberg.
E-mail: aps@scisoc.org; Web site: <http://www.shopapspress.org/>

XI International Symposium on Biological Control of Weeds in Canberra, Australia.
27 April to 2 May 2003.
See <http://www.ento.csiro.au/weeds2003/index.html> or contact Sharon Corey, CSIRO Entomology, GPO Box 1700, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia; Fax: +61-02-6246-4177; e-mail: <Sharon.Corey@csiro.au>.

55^th International Symposium on Crop Protection, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
6 May 2003
http://allserve.rug.ac.be/~hvanbost/symposium

Advances in European Crop Protection in Norwich, UK.
9-20 May 2003.
To register interest go to: <www.whitefly.org/EuroCropProtection.htm>.

2nd International Elm Conference, Valsain, Spain
20-23 May 2003
www.elmconference.com

Plant and Microbe Adaptations to cold, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada
25-29 May 2003
www.pmac2003.org

First International ISHS Conference on Turfgrass Management and Science for Sports Fields
2-7 June 2003
pan@aua.gr

International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) Extraordinary Meeting 2003 in Glattbrugg, Switzerland.
30 June-3 July 2003.
Contact: International Seed Testing Association (ISTA), Extraordinary Meeting 2003, P O Box 308, 8303 Basserdorf, CH-Switzerland; Fax: +41-1-838-6001; e-mail: <ista.office@ista.ch>. See: <http://www.seedtest.org>.

XVth International Plant Protection Congress, Beijing, China
6-11 July 2003
http://www.ipmchina.net/ippc/

XI International Congress on Molecular Plant-Microbe Interactions, St Petersburg, Russia
18-26 July 2003
http://www.arriam.spb.ru/mpmi/

19^th International Symposium on Virus and Virus-like Diseases of Temperate…, Valencia, Spain
21-25 July 2003
fv2003@ivia.es

XXXVI Brazilian Phytopathology Congress, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Uberlândia City, Minas Gerais, Brazil
3-8 August 2003
www.36cbf.iciag.ufu.br

American Phytopathology Society 95th Annual Meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
9-13 August 2003.
See <http://www.apsnet.org>.

Indonesian Phytopathological Society (IPS) XVIIth Congress and Seminar in Padjadjaran University, Bandung, West Java.
5-7 August 2003
Dr. Triwidodo Arwiyanto, Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada University, Sekip Unit 1 Yogyakarta-55281, Indonesia.
Tel: +62-274-542740; Mobile: +62-8156-866838; Fax: +62-274-563062; e-mail: tarwiyanto@yahoo.com

Second International Symposium on Plant Health in Urban Horticulture in Berlin, Germany.
27-29 August 2003.
Organized by The Plant Protection Services of Berlin and the Federal Biological Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry in cooperation with the German Phytomedical Society.
Contact: Dr Hartmut Balder, Plant Protection Service of Berlin, Mohriner Allee 137, D-12347 Berlin, Germany; e-mail: <pflanzenschutzamt@senstadt.verwalt-berlin.de>.

14th Meeting of the International Council for the study of Virus and Virus-like Diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG) in Locorotondo (Bari), Italy.
12–17 September 2003.
Contact: Donato Boscia <csvvdb08@area.ba.cnr.it>. See: <http://www.agr.uniba.it/ICVG2003>.

Slovak and Czech Plant Protection Conference in Nitra, Slovak Republic.
16-17 September 2003.
Contact <Jozef.Huszar@uniag.sk> or <Kamil.Hudec@uniag.sk>.

Eighth Arab Congress of Plant Protection in El-Beida, Libya.
12-16 October 2003
Contact: Dr Ali Bataw, <alibataw@hotmail.com>, Secretary of the Organizing Committee, Faculty of Agriculture, Omar El-Mokhtar University, El-Beida, Libya or Dr Bassam Bayaa, <B.Bayaa@cgiar.org>, President of the Arab Society of Plant Protection ICARDA, P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria.

First International ISHS Symposium on Tomato Diseases, Kusadasi, Turkey
27-31 October 2003
http://plantdoctor.ifas.ufl.edu/istd.html

Special Interest Symposium on Plant Pathogen Actinomycetes, (part of the 13^th International Symposium on the Biology of Actinomycetes), Melbourne, Australia
1-5 December 2003
Contact: E-mail: ian.riley@adelaide.edu.au; Website: www.conferencestrategy.com.au/isba/index.html

6th International Septoria/Stagonospora Symposium in Tunis, Tunisia.
8-12 December 2003.
Contact: Dr GHJ Kema at G.H.J.Kema@plant.wag-ur.nl.

British Society for Plant Pathology Presidential Meeting - Plant-Pathogen Genomics - from Sequence to Application in Nottingham, UK.
15-18 December 2003.
Contact: Dr M Dickinson, School of Biological Science, University of Nottingham, Loughborough LE12 5RD, UK; Fax: +44-115-951-3251; e-mail: <meetings@bspp.org.uk>.

11th International Cereal Rust and Powdery Mildew Conference in Norwich, UK.
23-27 August 2004.
Contact: Dr James Brown, John Innes Centre, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK; Fax: +44-1603-450045; e-mail: <james.brown@bbsrc.ac.uk>.

XIII International Botrytis Symposium in Antalya, Turkey.
25 -31 October 2004.
contact: Dr. Figen Yildiz <fyildiz@ziraat.ege.edu.tr>.

5th International Postharvest Research Symposium in Verona, Italy.
2004.
Contact: Professor Pietro Tonutti, University of Padova, Italy; Fax: +39-04982-72850; e-mail: <ptonutti@agripolis.unipd.it>.

The XIIIth Latin American Phytopathological Congress (XIII Congreso Latinoamericano de Fitopatología) in the city of Cordoba, Cordoba Province, Argentina.
Mid-2005.
Organized by the Latin American Phytopathological Association (ALF) jointly with the annual meeting of the Argentine Phytopathological Association (Asociación Argentina de Fitopatología, AAF).
Contact: Dr Sergio L Lenardon, Institute for Phytopathology and Plant Physiology (IFFIVE), INTA, Cordoba, Argentina; <slenard@infovia.com.ar>.