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Date: 14 Oct 2008
Source: The Guanacaste Journal, Infocom report [edited]
<http://journalcr.com/news_article.php?article=2368>

Plant-health emergency issued due to dangerous crop pests

Agriculture Minister Javier Flores Galarza announced that the Costa Rican government has issued a national and local phytosanitary emergency in order to deal with 2 dangerous pests that are currently affecting crops in various parts of the country and threatening to spread even further.

A 1st local emergency decree was issued for the Southern Zone cantons of Perez Zeledon and Buenos Aires, and for the Northern Zone cantons of San Carlos and Los Chiles, due to the presence of orange rot or sugar cane rot, a fungus that attacks sugarcane plantations.

"In this case, the state of emergency has been issued for a year, to be extended until this disease is controlled or the problem has been satisfactorily solved," Minister Flores Galarza explained.

The 2nd emergency is national in scope and will be in effect for the next 2 years, as a result of the appearance of an insect pest known as melon thrips (_Thrips palmi_ Karny), which was detected by officials with the State Plant Health Service (SFE) in a green bean sample from the community of Canas Gordas, district of Agua Buena, in the Southern Zone canton of Coto Brus (near the border with Panama).
The situation requires adequate control of this pest, which would threaten production of flowers, forages, vegetables, and large melon farms for export.

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[The terms orange rot and cane rot are not commonly used for any sugarcane disease. The disease referred to above is most likely red rot caused by the fungus _Glomerella tucumanensis_. It occurs in most cane growing countries, but continues to be a threat in a number of regions. Symptoms are highly variable depending on the host variety and environmental conditions and may include discolouration, red streaks, lesions, and drooping of young leaves. Plants die within
4 to 8 days. Stalks show a characteristic dull red internal discolouration. The pathogen can be spread by wind, water, infected plant material, and spores may survive in the soil. Disease management includes clean planting material, phytosanitary and cultural methods, and use of resistant crop varieties. For more information on red rot see ProMED-mail post no. 20080201.0401.

The melon thrips, _T. palmi_, can do serious damage to range of crops especially cucurbits and solanaceous vegetable and can even kill the plants. Furthermore, it is the vector for several viruses in the genus _Tospovirus_, including _Tomato spotted wilt virus_ (TSWV), _Capsicum chlorosis virus_, _Melon yellow spot virus_, _Groundnut bud necrosis virus_, _Watermelon silver mottle virus_, _Watermelon bud necrosis virus_, and the new Tomato zonate spot virus. These viruses are economically important both in glasshouse and tropical field production of their crop hosts, and the risk of an outbreak of these viruses in Costa Rica is vastly increased by the presence of their vector in the region.

Maps
Costa Rica:
<http://worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/camerica/lgcolor/crcolor.htm>
and
<http://healthmap.org/promed?v=10,-82.2,6>
Central America:
<http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/namerica/camerica/printpage/camerica.htm>

Pictures
Red rot leaf symptoms:
<http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/Sugarcrops/Sugarcane/Images/tin20a.jpeg>
Internal red rot of stems:
<http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/Sugarcrops/Sugarcane/Images/tin20.jpeg>
Red rot affected sugarcane field:
<http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LyraEDISServlet?command=getScreenImage&oid=12137145>
_T. palmi_:
<http://www.insectimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=5368115>
TSWV on a range of hosts:
<http://www.eppo.org/QUARANTINE/virus/Tomato_spotted_wilt_virus/TSWV00_images.htm>

Links
Red rot disease information:
<http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/SC006> and
<http://plantpathology.tamu.edu/Texlab/Sugarcrops/Sugarcane/srr.html>
Information on red rot and other sugarcane diseases:
<http://www.ikisan.com/links/ap_sugarcaneDisease%20Management.shtml>
_G. tucumanensis_ taxonomy:
<http://www.indexfungorum.org/Names/SynSpecies.asp?RecordID=297914>
_T. palmi_ fact sheet (with pictures):
<http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/pestnote/2006/thrips.pdf>
Information on _T. palmi_:
<http://www.pestinfo.org/Literature/lit453.htm>,
<http://www.ento.csiro.au/thysanoptera/Symposium/Section1/2-Murai.pdf>,  and <http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/veg/melon_thrips.htm>
_Tospovirus_ taxonomy:
<http://phene.cpmc.columbia.edu/ICTVdB/00.011.0.05.htm>
Current lists of recognised tospoviruses and their vectors:
<http://phene.cpmc.columbia.edu/Ictv/fs_bunya.htm#Genus5>  and <http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/tospovirus/tospo_list.htm>
_Tospovirus_ resource centre:
<http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/tospovirus/welcome.htm>
List of diseases and pathogens of sugarcane:
<http://www.apsnet.org/online/common/names/sugarcan.asp>.  - Mod.DHA]