Fantastic News! Napa County Winegrape Pest and Disease Control District Approved for next 5 year term.

On January 4th, the Napa County Board of Supervisors Voted unanimously to continue the NCWPDCD until March 26th, 2027. You can find the full letter to the board about the merits, accomplishments, and services provided by the District in Napa County Agricultural Commissioner Tracy Cleveland’s letter to the Board here:

Report on the Reauthorization of the Napa County
Winegrape Pest and Disease Control District

Scientists plot spotted lanternfly gene using a pest from Reading Pagoda Lisa Scheid Oct 31, 2019 Updated Jan 30, 2020

Red blotch is a recently recognized viral disease of grapevines that is widely distributed in U.S. vineyards. Limited information is available on the spread of grapevine red blotch virus (GRBV), its causal agent. Studying changes in disease incidence over time in selected vineyards in California and New York revealed an increase of diseased vines in the two California vineyards, although at distinct rates (2.5% vs 0.5% annual increase of diseased vines), but not in the New York vineyard. The differential dynamic of GRBV spread in two Californian vineyards is possibly associated with a 10-fold lower abundance of the three-cornered alfalfa hopper (TCAH), the only known vector of GRBV so far, in the vineyard where spread is limited compared to the vineyard where spread is readily occurring. No TCAH was found in the New York study vineyard where GRBV spread is not occurring. Surveys of vineyard middle-row cover crops revealed that none of the plants tested, especially legume species, during Spring of five consecutive years were positive for GRBV, suggesting no major role as virus reservoirs. However, a few experimental plants (tomato, snap bean and Nicotiana benthamiana) were found as hosts of GRBV; these plants will facilitate studies of virus-vector-host interactions in the future. Finally, preliminary information revealed a circulative, non-propagative transmission mode of GRBV by the TCAH. Together, our findings stress the need to reduce virus inoculum sources in vineyards for effective red blotch disease management rather than the control of TCAH populations.

https://static.cdfa.ca.gov/PiercesDisease/reports%2F2019%2FComprehensive%20Final%20Report%20for%20CDFA%20Agreement%20Number%2017-0517-000-SA.pdf