Olive and almond tree ebola spreads in Alicante Province

The Valencia government has detected further cases of Xylella fastidiosa in 17 Costa Blanca municipalities

Alarm bells are ringing again in the agriculture sector of the province of Alicante and the rest of the Comunidad Valenciana, particularly among olive and almond growers, following the detection of more cases of Xylella fastidiosa, a bacterium sometimes referred to as “almond ebola” due to its devastating effect on both kinds of tree.

The infestation has been detected in “secano” cultivations (ie areas in which crops such as almonds and olives are grown without the use of irrigation systems) in 17 municipalities in the La Marina area, with the plants affected including not only almond trees but also rosemary, laurel, lavender and apricot trees. The only positive aspect of the latest report published by the regional government in Valencia is that the number of species affected remains unchanged rather than having increased.

This means that the presence of Xylella is confirmed in 72 municipalities in the “infected area”, all of them in Alicante Province, and 74 in total within the Valencia region.

At the moment there are no known treatments for Xylella, so any plants found with the bacterium are ripped out and destroyed, as are any plants which could further transmit the bacterium within a radius of the affected specimen. The new regulations designed to combat the spread of the bacterium specify that vegetation within a radius of 50 metres from affected plants is to be eradicated, rather than the previous radius of 100 metres, allowing agriculturalists to uproot and destroy fewer of their trees than has been the case until now. Following the introduction of this modification the area designated as being affected by Xylella has decreased by 16 per cent to 128,003 hectares, while the “infected area” occupies 2,055 hectares, 197 of which are close to the 428 positive identifications of Xylella fastidiosa which resulted from the latest government testing.

The strain of Xylella which has been detected in Alicante is related to the “multiplex” sub-species, and fortunately no cases of the citrus variegated chlorosis which continues to destroy thousands of olive trees in southern Italy have yet been detected.

Once present in an orchard or vineyard, Xylella can decimate surrounding plants and trees: in recent years 250,000 hectares of olive groves containing a million trees have been destroyed in southern Italy, and cases have also been reported in France and Germany.