An overview of the history of the chestnut blight epidemic in Slovenia
2002
Jurc, D. (Slovenian Forestry Inst., Ljubljana (Slovenia))
Chestnut blight appeared near the town of Nova Gorica in Slovenia in 1950, but it had most likely been introduced into the country as early as 1940. Quarantine measures were immediately implemented and a special commission was created to fight the disease. The Commission's role was to organize all chestnut blight-related actions, submit new regulations and conduct a broad-based research program. The research work focused on the following areas: finding resistant sweet chestnuts; selecting, introducing and breeding Chinese chestnut; inducing mutations in the seeds of the sweet chestnut; investigating the role of bees in spreading disease; determining the longevity of spores and mycelium in infected bark; disinfecting wood and seeds; preventing new sprouts from infected stumps; and searching for antagonistic microorganisms. All research work and attempts of eradicating or stopping the disease were abandoned in 1969. Hypovirulence of the chestnut blight was presumed to have appeared in Slovenia in the mid-fifties, but was clearly firmly established by the mid-sixties as photographs of harmless superficial infections show.
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