Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety, Vienna, Austria
Several sporadic outbreaks of “flavescence dorée” in the Austrian vineyards have been recorded since 2009. A long-time monitoring of potential vectors and reservoir host plants of the “flavescence dorée” phytoplasma (FD) revealed that on some monitoring sites Phlogottetix cyclops is a common insect species on grapevines as well as on Clematis vitalba and Ulmus laevis growing near the vineyards. A high percentage of the captured specimens of P. cyclops harboured 16SrV-C phytoplasmas. Preliminary results showed that this Asian leafhopper could aquire FD from infected C. vitalba, but its ability to transmit the phytoplasma to grapevine still needs to be proven. The possible role of P. cylops for occasional transmission of FD from wild Clematis plants to grapevines is discussed.
Grapevine yellows phytoplasma, 16SrV, epidemiology, potential vector, reservoir host plants
