`France Publishes Report on Xf in Corsica - Olive Oil Times

France Publishes Report on Xf in Corsica

By Isabel Putinja
Sep. 28, 2015 08:09 UTC

In a press release, the French min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture has announced the pub­li­ca­tion of the results of a report on Xylella fas­tidiosa in Corsica. The report was final­ized fol­low­ing an expert mis­sion to the French island which had been announced by the min­istry in July.

The mis­sion was made up of an expert from the ministry’s Directorate General on Food Safety, as well as four advi­sors in ento­mol­ogy and bac­te­ri­ol­ogy from the National Institute for Agronomical Research.

The goal of the mis­sion was to come up with rec­om­men­da­tions on how to pre­vent, iden­tify and tackle the deadly bac­terium, and actions to be taken.

The report was pre­sented to the rel­e­vant gov­ern­ment bod­ies in Corsica on September 9 and 10, before being made pub­lic.

The 139-page report con­firms that the Myrtle-leaf Milkwort plants found to be infected are con­t­a­m­i­nated by a strain of Xylella fas­tidiosa. It also states that cit­rus plants are not at risk from this strain of the bac­terium and that pro­duc­ers of clemen­tine cit­rus fruits do not have to apply any mea­sures.

The report also elab­o­rates on the actions needed to respond to the con­t­a­m­i­na­tion, includ­ing the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of the strains of Xylella fas­tidiosa present on Corsica, as well as infor­ma­tion on poten­tial vec­tors and plants at risk; increased research on the national and European lev­els; and an adap­ta­tion of the EU erad­i­ca­tion strat­egy to the sit­u­a­tion in Corsica, while pro­tect­ing national and European ter­ri­tory from fur­ther infec­tions.



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