Occurrence of Tomato ringspot virus on Grapevines in Jordan

Abstract

Corresponding author: N. Salem Fax: + 1530 7525674 E-mail: nmsalem@ucdavis.edu Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) is the second major crop after olive in Jordan. It is distributed throughout the country on an area of about 39,000 ha (Anonymous, 2003). The health status of Jordanian viticulture is little known as there are few published reports; those that are available record the occurrence of leaf roll, rugose wood and fan leaf (Boscia et al., 1995; AlTamimi et al., 1998). Several virus-like disease symptoms, including yellowing, leaf distortion, stunted growth and decline have been observed during the last few years. A survey was conducted between March and July 2003 in the most important grapevine growing areas of Jordan. A total of 1,088 leaf samples were collected from 60 commercial vineyards and 10 nurseries. The samples were individually tested for Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV) by a double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DASELISA), using a commercial kit from Bioreba (Bioreba AG, Reinach, Switzerland) following manufacturer’s instructions. About 6.5% of the Occurrence of Tomato ringspot virus on grapevines in Jordan