UK Calls for Action to Prevent Xylella's Arrival

Environment Secretary Michael Grove said Europe needs to step up its protection to halt the spread of the disease and demanded more checks on high-risk plants.

By Julie Al-Zoubi
Sep. 19, 2017 16:00 UTC
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As fears mount that trees in Britain could fall vic­tim to the dis­ease which has wiped out large swaths of olive trees in Puglia and reared its ugly head on the Spanish main­land, the British gov­ern­ment has called for greater action to pre­vent the arrival and spread of Xylella fas­tidiosa in the UK.

There are many other vari­eties that we no longer import due to Xylella, many of which are not cur­rently known to be at risk from the dis­ease.- Jonathan Whittemore, Johnsons of Whixley

Xylella has not yet been reported in the UK and it’s unknown which plants are sus­cep­ti­ble to the dis­ease but experts have expressed par­tic­u­lar con­cern over a strain of Xylella that is able to sur­vive in cooler cli­mates and could infect a range of hosts includ­ing Britain’s most com­mon tree, the oak.

Environment Secretary Michael Grove told the Guardian news­pa­per that Europe needs to step up its pro­tec­tion strat­egy to halt the spread of the dis­ease and demanded more checks on high-risk plants as they are moved from coun­try to coun­try.

In a let­ter to the EU com­mis­sioner for health and food safety, Gove described con­tain­ing the spread of Xylella as of para­mount impor­tance.” While he wel­comed the EU’s review of the issue and the intro­duc­tion of emer­gency mea­sures, he expressed con­cern over the strength of cur­rent EU arrange­ments and ques­tioned the wis­dom of let­ting high-risk species be moved unchecked across bor­ders.

Gove said, With the ongo­ing risk of infected plants being moved to new areas, it is vital we move swiftly to strengthen our pro­tec­tion, includ­ing through increased test­ing and set­ting higher biose­cu­rity stan­dards for pro­duc­tion.”

If The EU fails to expand its pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures, the UK may be forced to take its own steps to keep Xylella out of the coun­try. These could include sus­pend­ing the import of high-risk species includ­ing olive, almond, rose­mary, laven­der and ole­an­der trees as well as intro­duc­ing stronger import require­ments for plants and trees arriv­ing from other EU coun­tries.

Xylella would have a dis­as­trous impact on the UK’s hor­ti­cul­tural sec­tor and Nicola Spence, the UK’s chief plant health offi­cer has called on UK plant importers to fol­low the exam­ple set by com­pa­nies which have already ceased sourc­ing plants from EU regions affected by the dis­ease.

One of the UK’s lead­ing plant and tree sup­pli­ers, Johnsons of Whixley told Olive Oil Times they were, very con­cerned” about the disease’s arrival and spread in the UK. Whixley’s have already taken pre­cau­tion­ary steps which included scrap­ping the import of olive trees.

Jonathan Whittemore, Whixley’s senior pro­cure­ment man­ager added, We have a spe­cific pol­icy in regard to Xylella which basi­cally means we have ceased imports from areas that we feel are too high risk.”

Johnsons of Whixley

Due to the areas that we have stopped trad­ing from and the sus­cep­ti­bil­ity of the olive tree to Xylella, there are many other vari­eties that we no longer import due to Xylella, many of which are not cur­rently known to be at risk from the dis­ease,” Whittemore said.

He went on to express his con­cern that while aware­ness of Xylella is increas­ing in the UK, fear and lack of knowl­edge sur­round­ing the dis­ease is cloud­ing deci­sions over the right action to take, result­ing in com­pa­nies tak­ing uni­lat­eral action.

Our approach relates specif­i­cally to our busi­ness and other respon­si­ble busi­nesses are tak­ing alter­na­tive approaches that they deem appro­pri­ate to their busi­nesses,” Whitmore said.

At the end of the day, each busi­ness in the UK will take the action that it needs to main­tain the com­mer­cial secu­rity. Some are call­ing for a col­lab­o­ra­tive approach from the dif­fer­ent agen­cies and stake­hold­ers in the indus­try.

Strong lead­er­ship is required and action is urgent, Whittemore said. There is a col­lec­tive respon­si­bil­ity to inform and to warn. The whole of our indus­try is at risk if this dis­ease enters UK.”



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