New Xylella Infections Found in Northern Puglia

Summary

An olive tree infected with Xylella fas­tidiosa has been dis­cov­ered in Minervino Murge, a region pre­vi­ously thought to be free of the bac­terium, lead­ing to con­cerns about the spread of the dis­ease in Italy’s impor­tant olive-pro­duc­ing area. Local author­i­ties are imple­ment­ing pre­ven­tion pro­to­cols to con­tain the spread of the dis­ease, but there are calls for more resources and research to find a defin­i­tive solu­tion to stop the bac­terium and pro­tect the olive oil indus­try in Apulia.

An olive tree located north of Bari, in an area pre­vi­ously thought to be free of Xylella fas­tidiosa, has been found infected with the bac­terium.

Xylella mon­i­tor­ing oper­a­tions con­ducted across the Puglia region allowed local researchers to iden­tify an early infec­tion, described as a ​“point-source out­break.”

A point source out­break is when an infected tree is the only one show­ing signs of infec­tion among hun­dreds of trees tested in the area.

Local insti­tu­tions con­firmed that the bac­terium found in Minervino Murge belongs to Xylella fas­tidiosa sub­species pauca, the same strain that has affected mil­lions of Apulian trees for over a decade.

According to local author­i­ties, the most prob­a­ble cause of infec­tion is the spit­tle­bug, an insect con­sid­ered the vec­tor of the bac­terium. Once infected with Xylella, the insect remains infec­tive for the rest of its life.

The dis­cov­ery has alarmed the local com­mu­nity, as the Bari province is at the heart of Italy’s most impor­tant olive-pro­duc­ing area.

It has been reported that the broad imple­men­ta­tion of manda­tory pre­ven­tion pro­to­cols to con­tain the spit­tle­bug pop­u­la­tion has con­sid­er­ably slowed down the bac­terium.

Still, Xylella fas­tidiosa pauca con­tin­ues head­ing north. Over the past decade, it has advanced approx­i­mately 250 kilo­me­ters, from the first sites where Xylella was iden­ti­fied to the lat­est infec­tion in Minervino.

“The fear we had long expressed has unfor­tu­nately become a tragic real­ity. The deadly Xylella fas­tidiosa bac­terium has reached the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. It was at the gates of Bari, and now it’s here with us,” Gaetano Riglietti, sec­re­tary-gen­eral of the agri­cul­tural work­ers’ union Flai-Cgil, wrote in a state­ment.

While the spit­tle­bug is known to move only short dis­tances on its own, it is often attracted to cars and trucks; cling­ing to them might allow it to carry Xylella over longer dis­tances.

Current European Union and local reg­u­la­tions man­date that the infected tree be removed and that an infected zone be declared within a 50-meter radius.

Before the tree is removed, the entire 50-meter area is sprayed to erad­i­cate any poten­tial vec­tor insects.

Within this zone, all plants sus­cep­ti­ble to Xylella infec­tion are sam­pled. Within a 400-meter radius, exten­sive sam­pling of olive trees and other poten­tial hosts is also con­ducted.

Additionally, a buffer zone, an area where spe­cial con­tain­ment pro­to­cols apply, now extends 2.5 kilo­me­ters from the point of infec­tion.

“Minervino Murge must be included among the munic­i­pal­i­ties of the Bari, Taranto and Brindisi provinces where manda­tory agri­cul­tural prac­tices must be car­ried out, includ­ing plow­ing, till­ing, har­row­ing or shred­ding to reduce the pop­u­la­tion of the spit­tle­bug,” noted the farm­ing asso­ci­a­tion Coldiretti.

In its state­ment, Coldiretti empha­sized that mechan­i­cal and phy­tosan­i­tary pre­ven­tion prac­tices, visual and insect mon­i­tor­ing, plant sam­pling and the removal of infected olive trees, along with new tools for early detec­tion of out­breaks, are the only ways to slow the spread of the infec­tion, since there is still no cure for this bac­te­r­ial dis­ease.

According to another farm­ing asso­ci­a­tion, CIA Puglia, cur­rent pre­ven­tion mea­sures and anti-Xylella actions are not suf­fi­cient.

“We urgently need the gov­ern­ment to appoint a spe­cial com­mis­sioner capa­ble of dri­ving a real break­through in the plan for con­tain­ment and regen­er­a­tion,” wrote Gennaro Sicolo, pres­i­dent of CIA Puglia and national vice pres­i­dent of CIA Agricoltori Italiani, in a state­ment sent to the press.

According to Sicolo, it is time for ​“extra­or­di­nary resources and pow­ers.”

“In the inter­est of Apulian farm­ers, the Puglia region and the gov­ern­ment must work together to secure the nec­es­sary atten­tion and resources from the European Union to fund sci­en­tific research that will finally lead to a defin­i­tive solu­tion to stop the bac­terium,” Sicolo said.

He warned that, if left unchecked, the north­ward spread of the bac­terium could threaten the entire Apulian olive oil indus­try, with con­se­quences for employ­ment, pro­duc­tion and even social sta­bil­ity.

“As a trade union orga­ni­za­tion, we are deeply con­cerned about the poten­tial con­se­quences for employ­ment, because even lim­ited cases like this, though hope­fully iso­lated, still cre­ate alarm,” Riglietti said.

“Beyond that, olive grow­ing is not only our ter­ri­to­r­ial voca­tion; it is also a defin­ing fea­ture of our land­scape, his­tory and the very cul­ture of this part of Puglia,” he con­cluded.