A diagnostic test kit has been developed to help Australia detect any possible outbreak of a potentially devastating grapevine virus.
The disease, commonly known as Grapevine Red Blotch disease, is potentially more dangerous than Australia’s current grapevine diseases. Grapevine diseases are notoriously insidious and difficult to contain, as plants cannot be immunised as animals can, making detection and prevention the number one control method.
The University of Adelaide has so far not detected any traces of the virus in Australian grapevines using its test kit, using DNA primers in the plants, and is working to prevent the introduction of the disease from imported cuttings.
Read more at University of Adelaide