Plum pox situation in Europe

The EPPO Conference on plum pox organized at Bordeaux (FR) in 1993–10 included a round‐table session at which scientists from research and plant protection services of EPPO Member Governments reviewed the current national status of the disease. These reports have been summarized and compared here. They show that plum pox is the most serious disease of stone fruit in Europe and that nearly all countries which produce stone fruits are affected to a greater or lesser extent. Broadly, Europe can be divided into three zones: (1) the central and eastern countries in which plum pox spread relatively early and levels are generally high; (2) the northern and western countries in which plum pox levels are very heterogeneous (sometimes fairly widespread as in Germany, sometimes very restricted as in France, sometimes absent as in Netherlands); (3) Mediterranean countries in which spread is relatively recent and there is high risk of further spread.