1Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Bologna, Italy
2Research Institute of Tropical Fruit Crops, La Habana, Cuba
3ASSOFWI, Vieux-Habitants, Guadeloupe, France
4Coconut Industry Board, Kingston, Jamaica
“Huanglongbing” (HLB) is one of the most devastating citrus diseases in the world. Citrus samples with symptoms referable to HLB were collected in different Caribbean Countries to verify the possible association of ‘Candidatus Phytoplasma’ and HLB. In Cuba, 140 samples out of 142, resulted positive for HLB and 32 were positive also for phytoplasmas. In Jamaica, out of 6 samples, 5 were positive to HLB and 1 was positive to phytoplasmas. In Guadeloupe, 17 samples were positive for HLB and 7 for phytoplasmas. These results indicate that the symptomatology is not discriminating between the two pathogens and the mixed infection is not an uncommon event.
Phloematic prokaryotes, molecular detection, mixed infection, “huanglongbing”, phytoplasmas
