Chile's Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) has announced it has detected the presence of Pseudomonas syringae pv. actinidiae (PSA) in the country's O'Higgins and Maule regions.

In the announcement SAG says it is developing a contingency plan to control the disease and will continue to conduct surveillance operations to determine the true distribution of PSA in Chile.

After the breakout of the kiwifruit vine-killing disease in Italy and New Zealand last year, SAG decided to conduct surveys in December and January to determine the absence or presence of the bacterium in the country.

The protocol survey and assessment was conducted by specialists from the public and private sectors, detecting the disease in three Maule farms and one area in the O'Higgins region.

Source: www.freshfruitportal.com