European research on Xylella fastidiosa

Contribution of the H2020 EU-funded projects POnTE and XF-ACTORS. May 2018. 33 pages

An international scientific conference on Xylella fastidiosa research was held in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, from 13 to 15 November, 2017. The conference was a joint venture organized by EFSA, the University of the Balearic Islands, the Euphresco network for phytosanitary research coordination and funding, the EU Horizon 2020 projects POnTE and XF-ACTORS, and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD).

The conference focused on outcomes of current European research programs on X. fastidiosa to disseminate the latest scientific advances and encourage dialogue, interactions and collaboration between research groups working on this emerging plant health threat. Keynote lectures were presented by experts from America who articulated their knowledge and experience on the pathogen, vectors and disease management strategies, in support of on-going efforts to control the European outbreak of X. fastidiosa.

The 3-day conference was organized in 8 sessions covering all aspects related to the pathogen, its interactions with vectors and hosts, diagnosis and early detection, and pathology, from modelling disease dynamics and risk assessment to tools for management and analysis of socio-economic impact.

The H2020 research projects POnTE (635646) and XF-ACTORS (727987) contributed more than 70% of the scientific program reporting on activities and results obtained by these two EU research Consortia. More than 260 participants from 20 EU and 14 non-EU countries (Europe, Middle East, North Africa, North, Central and South America, Australia and New Zealand) attended the conference. The participants came from different professionals fields, as stressed in the graph below.

The conference was followed, on November 15-16, by the joint annual meeting of the two H2020 projects, attended by project members, stakeholders supporting the projects and external observers. During the 2-day internal meeting, brief reports were presented for each work package to describe ongoing experiments and share preliminary results not presented in the conference that addressed implementation of the work plan of both projects.

The key contributions of POnTE and XF-ACTORS projects presented at the conference and during the annual meetings covered the different aspects of the Xylella-induced diseases and are summarized as follows.