Movement and dispersal of plum pox virus in Turkey

Abstract: Extensive surveys to detect movement and dispersal of plum pox virus (PPV) in the Central Anatolia region were carried out between 2007 and 2010 in commercial stone fruit orchards and nurseries, in non-commercial stone fruit trees at other locations and in rural and urban residential properties located in 25 provinces of the region. Surveys were conducted both in orchards and in any kind of sites, consist of stone fruit trees. During the surveys, in addition to Prunus samples, weeds and aphid samples were collected in the survey areas. A total of 2,817 samples were collected from almond, apricot, mahaleb, nectarine, plum, peach, sweet cherry and sour cherry. Collected samples were tested by serological and biological tests. Confirmation tests were applied by molecular tests. Twenty nine samples from 3 provinces (Aksaray, Kayseri and Konya) other than Ankara province were found to be infected with PPV. This virus has occurred in Turkey since 1968 and in Ankara province since 1973. Role of weed, its aphid vectors and other factors were tried to determine in its movement and dispersal to other locations and orchards. Its movement to far location was considered to realize by propagating materials, the role of aphid vectors and some fault agricultural practices from orchards to orchards in same location and from tree to tree in same orchard were determined. During this study, it was detected that weeds in even infected orchards had no role the movement of PPV in the region.