UK Calls for Action to Prevent Xylella's Arrival

As fears mount that trees in Britain could fall vic­tim to the dis­ease which has wiped out large swaths of olive trees in Puglia and reared its ugly head on the Spanish main­land, the British gov­ern­ment has called for greater action to pre­vent the arrival and spread of Xylella fas­tidiosa in the UK.

Xylella has not yet been reported in the UK and it’s unknown which plants are sus­cep­ti­ble to the dis­ease but experts have expressed par­tic­u­lar con­cern over a strain of Xylella that is able to sur­vive in cooler cli­mates and could infect a range of hosts includ­ing Britain’s most com­mon tree, the oak.

Environment Secretary Michael Grove told the Guardian news­pa­per that Europe needs to step up its pro­tec­tion strat­egy to halt the spread of the dis­ease and demanded more checks on high-risk plants as they are moved from coun­try to coun­try.

In a let­ter to the EU com­mis­sioner for health and food safety, Gove described con­tain­ing the spread of Xylella as of ​“para­mount impor­tance.” While he wel­comed the EU’s review of the issue and the intro­duc­tion of emer­gency mea­sures, he expressed con­cern over the strength of cur­rent EU arrange­ments and ques­tioned the wis­dom of let­ting high-risk species be moved unchecked across bor­ders.

Gove said, ​“With the ongo­ing risk of infected plants being moved to new areas, it is vital we move swiftly to strengthen our pro­tec­tion, includ­ing through increased test­ing and set­ting higher biose­cu­rity stan­dards for pro­duc­tion.”

If The EU fails to expand its pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures, the UK may be forced to take its own steps to keep Xylella out of the coun­try. These could include sus­pend­ing the import of high-risk species includ­ing olive, almond, rose­mary, laven­der and ole­an­der trees as well as intro­duc­ing stronger import require­ments for plants and trees arriv­ing from other EU coun­tries.

Xylella would have a dis­as­trous impact on the UK’s hor­ti­cul­tural sec­tor and Nicola Spence, the UK’s chief plant health offi­cer has called on UK plant importers to fol­low the exam­ple set by com­pa­nies which have already ceased sourc­ing plants from EU regions affected by the dis­ease.

One of the UK’s lead­ing plant and tree sup­pli­ers, Johnsons of Whixley told Olive Oil Times they were, ​“very con­cerned” about the disease’s arrival and spread in the UK. Whixley’s have already taken pre­cau­tion­ary steps which included scrap­ping the import of olive trees.

Jonathan Whittemore, Whixley’s senior pro­cure­ment man­ager added, ​“We have a spe­cific pol­icy in regard to Xylella which basi­cally means we have ceased imports from areas that we feel are too high risk.”

“Due to the areas that we have stopped trad­ing from and the sus­cep­ti­bil­ity of the olive tree to Xylella, there are many other vari­eties that we no longer import due to Xylella, many of which are not cur­rently known to be at risk from the dis­ease,” Whittemore said.

He went on to express his con­cern that while aware­ness of Xylella is increas­ing in the UK, fear and lack of knowl­edge sur­round­ing the dis­ease is cloud­ing deci­sions over the right action to take, result­ing in com­pa­nies tak­ing uni­lat­eral action.

“Our approach relates specif­i­cally to our busi­ness and other respon­si­ble busi­nesses are tak­ing alter­na­tive approaches that they deem appro­pri­ate to their busi­nesses,” Whitmore said.

At the end of the day, each busi­ness in the UK will take the action that it needs to main­tain the com­mer­cial secu­rity. Some are call­ing for a col­lab­o­ra­tive approach from the dif­fer­ent agen­cies and stake­hold­ers in the indus­try.

“Strong lead­er­ship is required and action is urgent, Whittemore said. ​“There is a col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­ity to inform and to warn. The whole of our indus­try is at risk if this dis­ease enters UK.”

• The Guardian


• Horticulture Week