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Monitoring of Important Virus and Viroid Infections in German Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) Yards
L. Seigner, A. Lutz and E. Seigner

Viroids and viruses can cause significant loss of yield and quality in hops. Several viruses are endemic in hop growing regions around the world but are tolerated because of high costs of replanting. A major problem is that viroids and viruses cannot be controlled by chemical plant protection measures. In addition, resistant hop cultivars are not available. But propagation of certified planting material, combined with a systematic replanting and monitoring program can impede the spread of viruses and viroids. Monitoring and close cooperation with plant health services are of utmost importance to detect and eradicate at an early stage first sources of infection with pathogens that have potentially catastrophic impacts on hop production. This is especially true with regard to Hop stunt viroid (HpSVd) and Citrus viroid IV (CVd IV), two dangerous viroids which must not be introduced in Germany?s hop production. Therefore, monitoring was conducted from 2008 to 2013 comprising all German hop growing regions to detect possible primary sources of viroid infections. From 2011 onwards, in this monitoring tests for Hop mosaic virus (HpMV), Apple mosaic virus (ApMV), Arabis mosaic virus (ArMV), Hop latent virus (HpLV) and American hop latent virus (AHpLV) were included to

Descriptors: monitoring, hops, virus, viroid, RT-PCR, DAS-ELISA

BrewingScience - Monatsschrift für Brauwissenschaft, 67 (May/June 2014), pp. 81-87