Contract Research
Risk Map
PGY/FD
Risk map for an infestation with Flavescence dorée in Palatinate vineyards
The grapevine yellows (Flavescence dorée, FD) is a quarantine disease that causes great damage in viticulture in southern Europe and is spreading further and further north. The symptoms of the disease are yellowing and curling of the leaves, drying, shriveling and dropping of the berries, as well as a lack of lignification of the shoots. It is caused by phytoplasmas, which are transmitted very efficiently from vine to vine by the introduced American grapevine cicada Scaphoideus titanus. An epidemic outbreak of the disease occurs when phytoplasma and cicada meet. The FD phytoplasma has already been detected once in grapevine in Germany in 2020. In summer of 2024, Scaphoideus titanus has been detected in southern Baden and thus for the first time in a German wine-growing region. The disease is already widespread in Burgundy and S. titanus has also been found in Alsace since 2016. The risk is therefore high that the Palatinate vineyards will soon also be affected.
It has been known since the 1990s that a phytoplasma closely related to FD is found in grapevine in the Palatinate: the Palatinate Grapevine Yellows Phytoplasma (PGY). Genetic variants of this phytoplasma are widespread in Germany - but not in vine but in alder. PGY is transmitted to vines by cicadas living on alder - but cannot be spread further from there.
FD phytoplasma variants, which can be efficiently transmitted by S. titanus, are also already present in alders in Germany. For an outbreak of FD, only a transmission from alder to vine and a further spread from vine to vine by S. titanus is required.
Vineyards in the vicinity of alders therefore have a particularly high risk of being infected by FD/PGY. RLP AgroScience carried out a GIS-based analysis of the occurrence of alders in the vicinity of vineyards throughout the Palatinate. The risk map created is intended to help winegrowers, advisors and researchers to identify vineyards at risk and to assess these in particular for infestation with a yellowing disease. The aim is to detect the occurrence of FD quickly and prevent it from spreading further.
Risk Map
Contact
Dr. Wolfgang Jarausch
Telefon: 06321 / 671 1307
