EU springs into action on olive plague

That whole Xylella fastidiosa attacking olives in Puglia story? Shit just got real. The French are burning trees in Corsica. And the European Commission has come out with a factsheet. This explains that

…there are four different subspecies of Xylella fastidiosa and that the strain identified in Apulia is a new genetic variant which has so far only attacked olive and plum trees. The bacterium is spread by spittlebugs, cicadas and sharpshooters which feed on the infected plant tissue.

Could get really nasty. Is anyone looking for resistant material?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *