Occurrence of Citrus psorosis virus in Campania, southern Italy

Citrus psorosis virus (CPsV), genus Ophiovirus, is associated with a severe disease of citrus worldwide. Double antibody sandwich (DAS) ELISA using a polyclonal antiserum, and triple antibody sandwich (TAS) ELISAs, employing the IgG monoclonal antibody (mab) 13C5, and the IgM mab 2A3, were used to detect CPsV in orchards of different citrus varieties in Campania, southern Italy. TAS ELISA with 13C5 detected all the infections detected by DAS ELISA. Overall, 14% of trees younger than 15 years were positive, but only 1% of older trees, suggesting that infected propagating material has been increasingly used in recent years, in the absence of certification. Highest infection rates were in younger trees of sweet orange (22.8%) and clementine (18.6%). CPsV could easily be detected at all seasons of the year tested (June-January); these and earlier results indicate that TAS ELISA using 13C5 is a sensitive, broad-spectrum and reliable diagnostic method useful for routine tests and certification programmes. Of 44 field isolates responding strongly to DAS ELISA and 13C5-TAS ELISA, mab 2A3 gave similar results with 29 isolates, but gave low values with the others, thus providing a degree of differentiation among isolates. To confirm that the ELISA tests were indeed detecting CPsV, samples of 42 ELISA-positive plants were analysed by ISEM in a blind test, and in 38 of these, characteristic virus particles were clearly seen. Although CPsV was frequently and consistently detected in the area sampled, bark scaling symptoms were not seen: possible reasons for this are discussed.