Don't know if been posted before might be of intrest to someone
Dear All,
FYI - Further information about P. ramorum is available in a question
and answer factsheet available from a link on the Forestry
Commission’s website at Forestry Commission - Plant Health - Sudden oak death - phytophthora alert
NB: Bilberry is found to be susceptible to the disease (see below).
Best regards,
Jenna
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The following account is copied and pasted from the Forestry
Commissions Website:
Forestry Commission - News - phytophthora ramorum infection spreads to trees in wales
Phytophthora ramorum infection spreads to trees in Wales
Forestry Commission experts are working to contain the spread of
Phytophthora ramorum infection to Japanese larch trees in South Wales.
Phytophthora ramorum (P. ramorum) is a fungus-like pathogen that kills
many of the trees and plants that it infects. Japanese larch trees
infected by P. ramorum were first found in South West England last
year, the only place in the world where it has attacked large numbers
of a commercially grown species of conifer tree.
This development was a step change in the pathogen’s behaviour. Since
first being identified in Britain in 2002, on a viburnum plant in a
garden centre, it had affected mostly shrub and ground-cover plants
such as rhododendron, viburnum and bilberry. Fewer than 100 infected
trees – mostly beech - had been found, and most of those were standing
close to infected rhododendron bushes.
Although it has been confirmed in only one area of larch forest in
Wales so far, Forestry Commission Wales expects to find more as ground
inspections follow up the aerial surveys that have pinpointed suspect
areas of woodland. Scientists at the Commission’s Forest Research arm
believe it likely that the spores that spread the disease have been
spread to the larch forests in rain, mists and air currents carried
across the Bristol Channel from the South-west, where it was confirmed
in Japanese larch last September.
Roddie Burgess, Head of the Forestry Commission’s Plant Health
Service, said the Commission and its partners are taking the
development very seriously, but hope to be able to contain it.
“Given the damage it has caused elsewhere, we were very concerned when
P. ramorum turned up in Britain in 2002, and we and our partner
organisations have moved quickly to deal with it and prevent it from
spreading wherever it has appeared. We managed to fell most of the
infected trees in the south-west before this year’s new needles formed
and therefore before new spores could be produced. This appearance and
spread into larch trees in Wales adds to our concern.
“However, based on our scientists’ knowledge of local weather patterns
and how it spreads, we remain hopeful that by taking quick action now
in Wales as well we might still prevent the infection from the larch
trees from spreading further north and east outside South Wales and
South West England.
“Working with our partners in Forest Research, Defra, Fera and the
Welsh Assembly Government, we have set up a programme of action to
enhance our survey effort, both in the air and on the ground, and to
fell infected trees and destroy other infected plants as fast as we
can.
“We are also appealing for the help and support of forest owners,
forestry workers and woodland visitors. Woodland owners and managers
should be vigilant for and report signs of the disease to us.
“Forestry workers and the visiting public are being asked to take some
simple biosecurity measures, such as washing their boots, equipment
and wheels, to reduce the risk of inadvertently spreading the disease.
Signs have been erected at forest entrances advising visitors what to
do to.”
To minimise the economic impact on the forest and timber industries,
the Commission is permitting logs from felled infected trees to be
moved to specially licensed sawmills, provided certain biosecurity
measures are taken. These include stacking the logs on bearers to keep
them off the ground while awaiting removal from the forest, and
pressure washing timber trucks before they return to the road.
Sawmill residues are also being destroyed or used as woodfuel.
Further information about P. ramorum is available in a question and
answer factsheet available from a link on the Forestry Commission’s
website at Forestry Commission - Plant Health - Sudden oak death - phytophthora alert.
NOTES TO EDITOR:
1. Pictures are available from the media contacts below.
2. Suspected infections should be reported to:
*
in Wales - Forestry Commission Wales, Clawdd Newydd, Ruthin,
Denbighshire, LL15 2NL; tel: 0300 068 0300, e-mail:
[email protected];
*
in South West England - Forestry Commission England, Mamhead
Castle, Mamhead, Nr Exeter, Devon EX6 8HD; tel: 01626 890666; e-mail:
[email protected];
*
in woodland elsewhere – the Forestry Commission’s Plant Health
Service on
[email protected]; tel 0131 314 6414;
*
in non-woodland trees such as those in gardens, parks, streets
and farmland - Forest Research’s Disease Diagnostic Advisory Service
on
[email protected]; telephone 01420 23000.
3. P. ramorum infection has been confirmed in Japanese larch trees
(Larix kaempferi) in woodland managed by Forestry Commission Wales in
the Afan Valley near Port Talbot, in Garw Valley near Bridgend, and
the Vale of Glamorgan. In South West England it has been confirmed in
a mix of Forestry Commission England and privately owned forests,
including the Commission’s Largin Wood in Cornwall, Plym Woods east of
Plymouth, and Canonteign Woods near Exeter.
4. P. ramorum has not been found on any trees in Scotland.
5. P. ramorum can be spread on footwear, vehicle wheels, tools and
machinery, by the movement of infected plants, and in rain, mists and
air currents.
6. Infected plants such as rhododendron are usually destroyed by
burning or deep burial. Infected trees are usually felled to kill the
living plant tissue on which the pathogen depends.
7. Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) is an ecologically important
ground-cover plant of British woodland and heathland, and known as
winberry in Wales and blaeberry in Scotland. Heather has also been
shown in laboratory tests to be susceptible to P. ramorum, raising
concerns about the ecological consequences if it were to damage large
areas of bilberry and heather. Bilberry is grown commercially and the
disease could have a serious economic impact on growers.
8. P. ramorum is a ‘quarantine’ organism under European Union law and
its presence on trees or woodland plants must be notified to the
relevant authorities (Forestry Commission, Fera, Scottish Government,
and the Welsh Assembly Government).
9. Infected Japanese larch trees produce particularly high numbers of
the inoculum that spreads the disease – five times the level produced
on rhododendron - meaning the disease can quickly affect a large
number of trees and shrubs.
10. P. ramorum has not been found infecting any European larch (Larix
decidua) or hybrid larch (Larix x eurolepsis) trees, but these species
are being kept under close surveillance.
11. Complete figures are not available for Japanese larch alone, but
all three larch species together cover an estimated 134,000 hectares
in Britain, or about 5 per cent of total woodland. Individual country
figures are:
* Wales – 23,000ha / 8 per cent;
* England – 47,000ha / 4.3 per cent;
* Scotland – 65,000 ha / 5.1 per cent.
(To convert hectares to acres, multiply by 2.47)
12. Larch is a durable, versatile timber that tolerates changes
between wet and dry conditions very well, and resists rotting when
used in the ground. It is therefore in demand for outdoor uses such as
fence posts, fence panels, exterior wall cladding, boats, sheds and
furniture, as well as indoor uses such as flooring and chipboard. It
is easily stained, worked and finished.
13. P. ramorum causes the disease known as “sudden oak death” in the
USA, where it has killed millions of American native oak and tanoak
trees in California and Oregon. However, laboratory tests have shown
that Britain’s two native species of oak, sessile and pedunculate (or
‘English’) oak, are much more resistant to it than their American
cousins. Fewer than five native oak trees haves been confirmed with P.
ramorum infection in Britain.
14. P. ramorum should not be confused with acute oak decline (AOD),
which is a separate disease affecting oak trees in the Midlands and
parts of Wales and South East England, and in which a newly discovered
bacterium species appears to be involved.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
For pictures, and information about P. ramorum in:
* Great Britain overall – Charlton Clark, 0131 314 6500;
* Wales - Mary Galliers or Clive Davies, 0300 068 0300;
* England – Stuart Burgess, 0117 372 1073;
* Scotland – Steve Williams or Paul Munro, 0131 314 6508/7.
e-mail:
[email protected]
