Emerging Plant Diseases in Italy: New Challenges and Risks

The Italian peninsula is located in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea, one of the areas most affected by climate change on a global scale. In addition to environmental stresses, Italian agricultural ecosystems have had to deal with an increasing number of new emerging diseases in recent decades. In particular, the production of both traditional and exotic crops such as olive, pomegranate, artichoke, avocado, kiwi, mango, papaya and pistachio has suffered a strong reduction due to new diseases caused by invasive pathogens. Among the most virulent species, several belong to the family Botryosphaeriaceae (fungi) and the genus Phytophthora (oomycetes). Although these two groups of pathogens are very distant from an evolutionary point of view, they share common characteristics such as invasiveness, polyphagia and rapid adaptability to new environments and host plants. One of the main causes of these “biological invasions” is related to the use of infected plant material from nurseries. The introduction of exotic pathogens in agriculture systems opens the way to undiscovered problems beyond the loss of yields, as these pathogens can progressively migrate towards forest ecosystems. To stop the introductions of exotic pathogens, it is necessary to increase phytosanitary surveillance systems and adopt diagnostic protocols common to all European countries.