Greening: Agricultural Defense of Goiás detects contaminated plants in two municipalities in the State

The Goiana Agricultural Defense Agency (Agrodefesa) carries out measures provided for in Federal Ordinance No. 317/2021, of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock (Mapa), to contain Huanglongbing (HLB), after identifying the disease in two orchards in the municipalities of Campo Clean from Goiás and Quirinópolis. The confirmation was declared last Friday (28/06), by the Federal Agricultural Defense Laboratory (LFDA-GO) of Mapa, after analysis carried out on suspicious material collected by state agricultural inspectors from Agrodefesa in the municipalities.

An entity of the Government of Goiás, Agrodefesa is responsible for plant health defense in the State and annually carries out a phytosanitary survey of quarantine pests in commercial citrus areas. “The Agency carries out intense work monitoring commercial citrus production in the State, with the aim of preventing the disease from entering Goiás, which was already present in states bordering ours”, emphasizes the president of Agrodefesa, José Ricardo Caixeta Ramos . “These two confirmed cases, both in Campo Limpo de Goiás and in Quirinópolis, are isolated cases and based on this identification, we began a protocol of measures to contain the plague to prevent its spread.”

HLB or Greening is considered the worst citrus disease because it has no treatment and because it spreads at high speed. The disease was detected in Brazil in 2004 and has caused major losses in states such as São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Paraná. It is caused by the bacterium Candidatus Liberibacter spp., transmitted by the psyllid Diaphorina citri, an insect with a grayish-white color and dark spots on the wings. The main symptoms of HLB are mottled and yellowed leaves, defoliation, drought and death of branches. The fruits are deformed, small and asymmetrical, the seeds are aborted, small and malformed and dark in color.

In Quirinópolis, HLB was detected in only one plant of the Laranja Pêra Rio species (Citrus sp) – already eradicated by the producer -, on a 62-hectare commercial property, which produces oranges, lemons and tangerines. The property is registered in the Agrodefesa Phytosanitary Certification System and has a technical person qualified to monitor the prevention and control of quarantine pests, with trapping and fortnightly changes of traps to capture the psyllid, an insect vector (diaphorina citri).

In the case of Campo Limpo de Goiás, HLB was found in some plants on a small commercial property of around six hectares, producing tangerines (Citrus reticulata White) of the Ponkan cultivar. “Immediately after discovering the occurrence of the pest, we notified citrus growers and initiated containment actions together with producers and their Technical Managers to prevent the spread of the disease”, adds the coordinator of the Agrodefesa Phytosanitary Fruit Growing Program, Fernanda Faganello.

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The coordinator of the Citrus Program of the Plant Health Management, Mariza Mendanha, emphasizes that the Agency will define the scope of the outbreaks and carry out new phytosanitary surveys. “As determined by the Map Ordinance, new phytosanitary surveys will be carried out to delimit the areas of occurrence, with an emphasis on phytosanitary inspections in nurseries that sell citrus seedlings, whose responsibility for production is the responsibility of the Ministry”, she explains.

Also following the officialization of Agrodefesa to Mapa, the state of Goiás should have its phytosanitary status changed to an area where the pest occurs Candidatus Liberibacter spp. The new status implies impacts on the expansion of citrus farming in Goiás, which could lead to a reduction in areas and fruit productivity, if the producer does not comply with legislative prevention and control measures.

Agrodefesa's Plant Health Manager, Daniela Rézio, considers that although the disease has been diagnosed in the State, the isolated cases can still be controlled, but that the support of producers and the whole of society is needed for the measures to be carried out well. to contain the disease.

According to her, it is necessary for producers and Technical Managers (RTs) to be aware of the symptoms of the disease and notify Agrodefesa in case of suspicion, so that it is possible to identify and monitor the population of insect vectors, known as psyllids. “Society also plays a fundamental role in this process, by no longer purchasing seedlings from street vendors and reporting to Agrodefesa for the interception of the seedlings, which are the main means of introducing the pest into Goiás”, he reinforces.