Evaluation of control measures to reduce the primary dispersion and inoculation of HLB in citrus orchards

• Grant number: 19/19481-5
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctorate
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2019
• Effective date (End): October 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Plant Health
• Principal researcher: Renato Beozzo Bassanezi
• Grantee: Isabela Vescove Primiano
• Home Institution: Fundo de Defesa da Citricultura (FUNDECITRUS). Araraquara , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/21460-0 - Measures for reducing primary infections in the integrated management of Huanglongbing in São Paulo citrus belt: technical and economic feasibility, AP.TEM

Abstract

Preventing new infections is essential for controlling Huanglongbing (HLB). Primary infections, derived from psyllids that acquired the bacteria from inoculum sources outside the commercial orchard and which often disperse from this external source into the commercial orchard in search of new shoots to feed and reproduce, are not completely avoided by applying current measures of control. This work aims to evaluate the technical feasibility of available measures to the citrus grower and that can be integrated to reduce these primary infections. In the edge of the orchard, until the first 200 m from the property boundary, the region with the highest concentration of the migrating psyllids carrying the bacteria from neighboring areas, the importance of eradicating symptomatic plants in the primary dispersion into the orchard will be evaluated. In order to prevent the primary inoculation of the bacteria by the psyllid, preventing the access of the vector to the plant or its feeding on the plant, will be evaluated different frequencies and intensities of insecticide spraying on the edge of plots located in the orchard boundary.