Crop Disease

University of Florida researchers offer up “lessons learned” after laurel wilt disease threatened the Sunshine State’s avocado industry.

A UF professor deploys unusual methods in the field to investigate bacteria that infect tomato and pepper crops.

UF plant pathologists affiliated with both IFAS and the EPI earned the distinction of having a “top-viewed” poster at the virtual annual meeting of the American Phytopathological Society.

When it comes to managing risks to food crops from pathogens, landscape connections may be just as key to the spread of diseases as are networked trade routes and a changing climate.

A known pathogenic fungus, so far only reported to cause disease in two crops, has ensnared a third victim: eggplants. UF plant pathologists affiliated with both UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences and the EPI, were the first to describe Lasiodiplodia hormozganensis’s jump to a new host.

proposed global surveillance system would act as a bulwark against diseases that threaten food crops. UF plant pathologist Karen Garrett, who is affiliated with both IFAS and the EPI, coauthored a policy paper in Science outlining a visionary system that would link existing local and national programs to identify, predict, monitor and mitigate outbreaks of emerging crop diseases.

A new study by an international research team, including UF medical geographer and EPI investigator Sadie Ryan, identifies global regions most at risk of -- and most resilient to -- citrus greening. There is no cure for infected trees, and the disease has wiped out millions of acres of citrus crops worldwide.

The banana crop is an important commodity in Tanzania and much of East Africa, with many in the region eating up to 400 kilograms of bananas per person per year. Plant diseases are a major threat to the sustainability of the crop, and over the past decade, a bacterial infection once found only in Ethiopia has risen in prominence in all countries around Lake Victoria, including Tanzania.

University of Florida researchers have found an algorithm to help them detect laurel wilt, the deadly pathogen that threatens Florida’s $100 million-a-year avocado industry.

As citrus greening continues to impact Florida’s groves, growers have found that they need a way to quickly and accurately count the amount of fruit dropped early to help identify problem areas, which will save time and money.