New Grape Vine Disease Part 2

New Grape Vine Disease Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Naidu Rayapati, Associate Professor of Virology at WSU has a puzzle on his hands. It’s a new grape vine virus that originally was thought to be a version of leaf roll disease. This new virus is causing significant fruit loss in wine grapes.

RAYAPATI: We also did some study on fruit quality in terms of sugars, pH, anthocyanins, etc. and again the results clearly showed that there is significantly lower soluble solids.

He says the research is showing this new virus is causing significant damage.

RAYAPATI: This is fairly significant numbers and sometimes these numbers are higher compared to what we normally get with leaf roll disease. So we are beginning to realize that in addition to leaf roll disease the industry has to grapple with this new emergent disease.

And at the moment Rayapati says they have no idea where this new disease came from.

RAYAPATI: That’s the million dollar question. We are not sure whether it has been introduced through cuttings from outside sources. So we are again trying to figure out based on our research what is the likely origin of this virus and how best we can strengthen our quarantine and regulate the policies to fill the loopholes, so to speak.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.